Headland Capital LLC Buys New Shares in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Headland Capital LLC bought a new stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 198,252 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $47,503,000. Progressive accounts for about 16.3% of Headland Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Progressive by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,400,366 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $12,795,262,000 after acquiring an additional 583,376 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Progressive by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,615,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,498,363,000 after acquiring an additional 189,638 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter worth about $1,843,045,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Progressive by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,179,529 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,480,677,000 after acquiring an additional 710,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Progressive by 34.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,058,187 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,451,602,000 after acquiring an additional 1,547,677 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 3,855 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.06, for a total transaction of $952,416.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 39,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,645,222.40. The trade was a 8.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 1,542 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total transaction of $435,861.72. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 268,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $75,759,663.84. This trade represents a 0.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 43,749 shares of company stock valued at $11,972,513 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Progressive from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Progressive from $282.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Roth Mkm upped their target price on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.41.

Progressive Stock Performance

PGR stock opened at $276.37 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $162.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $274.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $258.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The Progressive Co. has a 12-month low of $201.34 and a 12-month high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.28 by $0.37. The firm had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.87 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.70%.

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.