Natixis Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 762,274 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,257 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.13% of Progressive worth $182,648,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Progressive by 98.2% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $189,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in Progressive by 90.9% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 7,813 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,983,000 after acquiring an additional 3,720 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Progressive by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,067,924 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,286,036,000 after acquiring an additional 330,667 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Progressive by 2,262.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 433,999 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $103,990,000 after acquiring an additional 415,628 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Progressive by 42.3% in the 4th quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,849,000 after acquiring an additional 3,534 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PGR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Roth Mkm lifted their target price on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Raymond James raised 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. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Progressive from $333.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $281.76.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.00, for a total value of $344,787.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 28,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,978,433. This trade represents a 4.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.94, for a total transaction of $2,799,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 269,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $75,462,306.04. This represents a 3.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 62,257 shares of company stock valued at $15,752,781 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR stock opened at $283.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The company has a market capitalization of $166.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $258.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $253.97. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $199.57 and a one year high of $287.49.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current 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 dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.14%. Progressive’s payout ratio 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.