AXS Investments LLC Makes New $231,000 Investment in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

AXS Investments LLC bought a new position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,453 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PGR. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Progressive by 1.7% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 9,245 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,288,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Progressive in the third quarter worth approximately $298,000. Lincoln National Corp grew its position in Progressive by 13.0% in the third quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 3,033 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $423,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC grew its position in Progressive by 16.2% in the third quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 3,899 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its position in Progressive by 143.4% in the third quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 82,512 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,494,000 after acquiring an additional 48,617 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Roth Mkm upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $228.00 to $247.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $161.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $202.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $171.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $215.19.

Progressive Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of PGR stock opened at $203.91 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a 52-week low of $111.41 and a 52-week high of $217.77. The stock has a market cap of $119.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.87, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.32. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $208.92 and a 200-day moving average of $185.41.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced 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 net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 29.43%. The company had revenue of $18.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 11.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 4.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $208,330.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,494,976.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total transaction of $208,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,494,976.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 7,361 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.25, for a total transaction of $1,525,567.25. Following the sale, the insider now owns 35,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,357,996.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,825 shares of company stock worth $3,337,741. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.