Brokerages Set The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) Price Target at $281.76

Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $281.06.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $318.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. HSBC cut shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 26th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 282,958 shares in the company, valued at $67,530,756.28. This represents a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $164,870.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 33,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. This represents a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,495 shares of company stock worth $16,668,034 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Progressive

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PGR. Webster Bank N. A. purchased a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Progressive by 54.7% during the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in Progressive by 3,000.0% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $274.52 on Tuesday. 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 52-week low of $201.34 and a 52-week high of $292.99. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $261.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $254.84. The stock has a market cap of $160.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Progressive will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

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

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.