WealthTrust Asset Management LLC Acquires New Stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

WealthTrust Asset Management LLC bought a new position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,445 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $923,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. King Luther Capital Management Corp raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 2,173 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC acquired a new position in Progressive during the second quarter worth about $294,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Progressive by 117.0% in the second quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 431,480 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $89,623,000 after acquiring an additional 232,634 shares in the last quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management lifted its holdings in Progressive by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management now owns 10,601 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,202,000 after acquiring an additional 838 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 26,369 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,477,000 after purchasing an additional 1,031 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Progressive from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Bank of America upped their target price on Progressive from $294.00 to $312.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Roth Mkm lifted their price target on Progressive from $270.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $262.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Progressive from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $257.18.

Progressive Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE PGR opened at $255.17 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $149.45 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.35. The Progressive Co. has a 1-year low of $137.59 and a 1-year high of $260.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $233.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $216.58.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.61. The company had revenue of $17.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.54 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 10.17%. The business’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 12.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.16%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Progressive news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,370 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.20, for a total transaction of $10,937,914.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $119,475,967. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Progressive news, insider Steven Broz sold 3,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.81, for a total transaction of $639,920.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,808,963.93. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,370 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.20, for a total value of $10,937,914.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,735 shares in the company, valued at $119,475,967. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 146,704 shares of company stock valued at $33,367,408 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

About Progressive

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.