California Public Employees Retirement System Cuts Stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,027,638 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 177,042 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.52% of Progressive worth $482,242,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Compass Ion Advisors LLC grew its position in Progressive by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Compass Ion Advisors LLC now owns 7,443 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,186,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Progressive by 10.2% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 670 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $93,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Progressive by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners grew its position in shares of Progressive by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 1,727 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $275,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Progressive by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,231 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $515,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Progressive from $171.00 to $202.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Progressive from $161.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. HSBC raised their target price on Progressive from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Progressive from $232.00 to $238.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $240.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a research note on Monday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $211.88.

Progressive Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE:PGR traded down $1.69 on Monday, hitting $213.00. 2,718,357 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,620,440. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The Progressive Co. has a 1 year low of $111.41 and a 1 year high of $216.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $199.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.58. The company has a market cap of $124.75 billion, a PE ratio of 21.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The insurance provider reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.74. The company had revenue of $18.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.88 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.65 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.19%. Progressive's dividend payout ratio is 4.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $208,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,494,976.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,464 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.49, for a total transaction of $1,603,843.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,342 shares in the company, valued at $6,128,485.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $208,330.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at $1,494,976.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,139 shares of company stock worth $7,458,139 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by 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.

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