Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 407,714 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. trimmed its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 93.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,285 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 407,714 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.'s holdings in Progressive were worth $7,439,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 1.1% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 1.3% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter worth about $1,843,045,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 13.0% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 34.3% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PGR. Bank of America upgraded shares of Progressive from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $312.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Progressive and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Progressive from $324.00 to $328.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Progressive from $282.00 to $288.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $288.59.

Progressive Price Performance

NYSE:PGR traded down $0.84 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $267.58. 3,152,193 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,679,221. 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 Progressive Co. has a 1 year low of $204.62 and a 1 year high of $292.99. The company has a market cap of $156.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $276.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $264.53.

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

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In related news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 1,542 shares of the company'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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 268,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at $75,759,663.84. This represents a 0.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,696 shares of the company'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 $479,391.36. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 26,697 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,546,174.02. The trade was a 5.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 37,755 shares of company stock valued at $10,367,074. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.