Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. trimmed its stake in PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 697,964 shares of the company’s stock after selling 29,283 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc.’s holdings in PROG were worth $33,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in PROG by 1.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,430,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,846,000 after buying an additional 30,030 shares in the last quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of PROG by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 896,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,076,000 after acquiring an additional 6,803 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of PROG by 14.1% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 684,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,746,000 after acquiring an additional 84,497 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of PROG in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $19,079,000. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of PROG by 1.3% during the second quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 291,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,111,000 after purchasing an additional 3,750 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on PRG. TD Cowen upgraded PROG to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of PROG in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $60.00 price target for the company. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of PROG from $46.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Loop Capital raised shares of PROG from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $41.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of PROG from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PROG currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.83.

PROG Stock Down 0.6 %

NYSE:PRG opened at $48.11 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 2.34 and a current ratio of 4.97. The firm has a market cap of $2.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.33 and a beta of 2.15. PROG Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.84 and a fifty-two week high of $50.28. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.32.

PROG (NYSE:PRG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $606.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $601.86 million. PROG had a net margin of 6.55% and a return on equity of 24.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts predict that PROG Holdings, Inc. will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PROG Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 19th. PROG’s payout ratio is currently 13.30%.

Insider Activity

In other PROG news, CEO Steven A. Michaels sold 27,324 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.19, for a total transaction of $1,289,419.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 409,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,310,572.71. The trade was a 6.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Brian Garner sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.29, for a total value of $246,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,720 shares in the company, valued at $5,309,518.80. The trade was a 4.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 119,207 shares of company stock valued at $5,759,152 over the last ninety days. 2.74% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

PROG Company Profile

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.