Sandy Cove Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Sandy Cove Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,505 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PGR. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 10.2% in the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 670 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $93,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new stake in Progressive in the 3rd quarter worth $1,468,000. Bamco Inc. NY grew its position in Progressive by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 13,000 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC raised its position in shares of Progressive by 29.3% during the third quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 2,409 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $336,000 after buying an additional 546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 1.4% in the third quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 18,984 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,644,000 after buying an additional 266 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on PGR shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Progressive from $243.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Progressive from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. HSBC increased their price target on shares of Progressive from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Progressive from $161.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Progressive from $279.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $216.81.

Progressive Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of PGR stock traded down $3.64 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $207.71. The company had a trading volume of 4,068,275 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,532,151. The Progressive Co. has a 1-year low of $111.41 and a 1-year high of $217.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.32 and a quick ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $121.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a 50 day moving average of $209.49 and a 200 day moving average of $193.60.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) 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 firm had revenue of $18.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.88 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 3rd. Progressive’s payout ratio is presently 4.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Steven Broz sold 3,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.81, for a total value of $639,920.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 32,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,808,963.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Steven Broz sold 3,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.81, for a total value of $639,920.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,453 shares in the company, valued at $6,808,963.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.11, for a total transaction of $135,271.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,981 shares in the company, valued at $828,485.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 24,518 shares of company stock worth $5,055,674. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

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.