The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) Stake Cut by Crow s Nest Holdings LP

Crow s Nest Holdings LP cut its stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 21.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 150,000 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 40,000 shares during the quarter. Progressive makes up approximately 7.6% of Crow s Nest Holdings LP's portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Crow s Nest Holdings LP's holdings in Progressive were worth $35,942,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $103,990,000 after purchasing an additional 415,628 shares in the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,849,000 after buying an additional 3,534 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Progressive by 30.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,069,697 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $255,882,000 after buying an additional 249,958 shares during the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 40.4% during the 4th quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 238,250 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $57,132,000 after acquiring an additional 68,589 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 100.3% in the 4th quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 3,541 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $875,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PGR. Barclays upped their price target on Progressive from $285.00 to $297.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. StockNews.com cut shares of Progressive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Progressive from $282.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $287.65.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE PGR traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $284.33. 1,542,707 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,625,669. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a market cap of $166.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.40. The Progressive Co. has a 12-month low of $201.34 and a 12-month high of $292.99. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $275.16 and a 200 day moving average of $260.28.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.37. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. The business had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $21.87 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.14%. Progressive's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.70%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 4,669 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.70, for a total value of $1,305,919.30. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,191 shares in the company, valued at $4,248,922.70. This represents a 23.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.94, for a total value of $2,799,400.00. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,894 shares of company stock worth $11,020,097 in the last 90 days. 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.