Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Increases Stake in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 5.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 172,447 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,112 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $46,019,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the 1st quarter valued at $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 61.4% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,362,039,000 after buying an additional 3,174,632 shares during the period. C WorldWide Group Holding A S grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 12,110.3% during the first quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 1,248,628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $353,374,000 after buying an additional 1,238,402 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 15.2% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,263,157 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,338,556,000 after buying an additional 1,091,828 shares during the period. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE bought a new stake in shares of Progressive in the 1st quarter valued at about $194,557,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Steven Broz sold 1,345 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $325,624.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 30,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,356,934.80. The trade was a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,659 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.06, for a total value of $7,543,953.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 476,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $117,194,933.16. The trade was a 6.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 128,778 shares of company stock valued at $31,683,756. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Progressive from $252.00 to $247.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Progressive from $275.00 to $273.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Wolfe Research started coverage on Progressive in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Progressive from $270.00 to $262.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reduced their price target on shares of Progressive from $305.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $270.40.

Progressive Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $218.93 on Friday. The Progressive Corporation has a twelve month low of $217.20 and a twelve month high of $292.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market cap of $128.34 billion, a PE ratio of 12.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.32. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $256.39.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.04 by ($0.59). Progressive had a return on equity of 33.88% and a net margin of 12.57%.The company had revenue of $21.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.58 earnings per share. Analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 2nd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 2nd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.19%.

Progressive Profile

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.