RiverPark Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

RiverPark Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 2,940.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,807 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 5,616 shares during the period. RiverPark Advisors LLC's holdings in Progressive were worth $1,391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of PGR. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Progressive by 98.2% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $189,000 after buying an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Progressive by 2,262.4% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 433,999 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $103,990,000 after buying an additional 415,628 shares during the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC increased its position in Progressive by 42.3% during the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,849,000 after buying an additional 3,534 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Progressive by 30.5% during the fourth 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. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Progressive during the third quarter worth approximately $35,253,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PGR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays boosted their price target on Progressive from $285.00 to $297.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. 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. Bank of America raised Progressive from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $312.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday. Roth Mkm increased their target price on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Progressive from $327.00 to $319.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $287.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other Progressive news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 3,855 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.06, for a total transaction of $952,416.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 39,040 shares in the company, valued at $9,645,222.40. The trade was a 8.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jeffrey D. Kelly sold 10,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,500,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 27,741 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,935,250. The trade was a 26.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 53,749 shares of company stock worth $14,472,513 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR stock traded up $5.67 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $275.25. The stock had a trading volume of 1,141,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,093,402. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $274.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $258.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The Progressive Co. has a 12 month low of $201.34 and a 12 month high of $292.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.36 billion, a PE ratio of 19.10, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.87 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.15%. Progressive's payout ratio is presently 2.70%.

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.