Bank of America Cuts Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Price Target to $300.00

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its target price cut by Bank of America from $318.00 to $300.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Hsbc Global Res lowered Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Raymond James raised Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, HSBC lowered Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Progressive has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $281.06.

Progressive Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of PGR opened at $273.08 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31. Progressive has a one year low of $201.34 and a one year high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.96, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $261.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $255.01.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. Equities research analysts forecast that Progressive will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.15%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.78%.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 9,066 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $2,194,878.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,691,485.60. This trade represents a 1.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total value of $2,386,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,530,756.28. This represents a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,495 shares of company stock valued at $16,668,034 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Progressive

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PGR. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,843,045,000. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 67.6% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,171,501 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,239,143,000 after buying an additional 2,085,833 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $408,416,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Progressive by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,425,792 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,652,235,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Progressive by 34.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,058,187 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,451,602,000 after purchasing an additional 1,547,677 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.