United Capital Financial Advisors LLC Takes Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

United Capital Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 16,528 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,610,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Progressive during the 2nd quarter valued at $10,496,271,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Progressive by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,808,762 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,373,474,000 after acquiring an additional 78,374 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Progressive by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,921,724 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,398,123,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217,527 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Progressive in the second quarter valued at $2,682,342,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in Progressive by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 10,432,549 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,375,706,000 after purchasing an additional 1,092,151 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $208.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on Progressive from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $236.26.

Progressive Trading Up 0.6%

NYSE:PGR opened at $218.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The Progressive Corporation has a one year low of $189.20 and a one year high of $249.83. The company has a market cap of $127.26 billion, a PE ratio of 10.98, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $217.19 and a 200-day moving average of $207.23.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The insurance provider reported $5.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.64 by $1.03. The business had revenue of $23.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.49 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 32.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.40 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 1st. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.71, for a total value of $1,797,824.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 32,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,880,743.08. This represents a 20.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Jo Murphy sold 8,124 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $212.70, for a total value of $1,727,974.80. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 41,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,782,595.70. The trade was a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 83,449 shares of company stock valued at $17,685,203 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

About Progressive

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.