New Century Financial Group LLC Buys Shares of 1,202 The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

New Century Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,202 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Balentine LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 22,162 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,530,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Compass Ion Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Progressive by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Compass Ion Advisors LLC now owns 7,443 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,186,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance grew its holdings in Progressive by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 3,438 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $548,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the period. Winslow Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Progressive by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Winslow Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,579 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,366,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waterloo Capital L.P. lifted its holdings in Progressive by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 9,481 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,510,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $243.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Progressive from $241.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Progressive from $230.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on Progressive from $216.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Progressive from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Progressive has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $216.81.

Progressive Trading Down 0.4 %

Progressive stock opened at $210.27 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a 12 month low of $111.41 and a 12 month high of $217.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $123.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $209.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $194.86.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The insurance provider reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.74. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm had revenue of $18.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 11.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 3rd. Progressive’s payout ratio is presently 4.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.40, for a total transaction of $2,104,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 302,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,742,363.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.40, for a total transaction of $2,104,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 302,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,742,363.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 12,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.43, for a total value of $2,546,584.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 312,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,978,003.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 34,518 shares of company stock valued at $7,159,674 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Profile

The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, business related general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property.