Janus Henderson Group PLC Sells 158,850 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Janus Henderson Group PLC trimmed its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,013,823 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 158,850 shares during the period. Progressive comprises approximately 0.9% of Janus Henderson Group PLC's holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned about 1.20% of Progressive worth $1,680,776,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC raised its position in shares of Progressive by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 3,695 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $885,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Progressive by 54.7% during the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Washington Trust Bank raised its position in Progressive by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Washington Trust Bank now owns 1,066 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp raised its position in Progressive by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 1,602 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $384,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Monument Capital Management raised its position in Progressive by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Monument Capital Management now owns 13,762 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $3,298,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "market perform" rating and set a $288.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Progressive from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $287.65.

Progressive Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of Progressive stock traded down $4.26 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $278.33. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,421,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,638,996. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The Progressive Co. has a 52 week low of $201.34 and a 52 week high of $292.99. The stock has a market cap of $163.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.33, 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 $275.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $261.00.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $22.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $21.87 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd were paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.14%. Progressive's dividend payout ratio is 2.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total transaction of $110,016.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,370 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,302,084.80. This represents a 4.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 360 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.17, for a total transaction of $99,421.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 655 shares in the company, valued at $180,891.35. This trade represents a 35.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 39,894 shares of company stock valued at $11,020,097 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by 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.