Pelham Capital Ltd. Purchases New Shares in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR)

Pelham Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 21,100 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,972,000. Progressive accounts for about 3.1% of Pelham Capital Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 583,376 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 189,638 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter worth about $1,843,045,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 710,684 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,547,677 shares during the period. 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Progressive from $288.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group dropped their target price on Progressive from $291.00 to $280.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America raised Progressive from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $312.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley lowered Progressive from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $330.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Progressive from $297.00 to $287.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $285.41.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, insider John Jo Murphy sold 4,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.38, for a total transaction of $1,041,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 41,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,750,829.82. The trade was a 8.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,267 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.38, for a total value of $329,901.46. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,621 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,191,955.98. This represents a 4.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 42,705 shares of company stock worth $11,450,948 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Progressive Stock Down 0.5%

PGR stock traded down $1.29 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $249.13. The company had a trading volume of 4,289,710 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,807,988. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $272.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $265.51. The company has a market capitalization of $146.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.80, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.37. The Progressive Corporation has a 52 week low of $207.50 and a 52 week high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.37. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.50% and a net margin of 11.10%. The company had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.87 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a dividend yield of 0.15%. Progressive's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.