Candriam S.C.A. Acquires 138,788 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Candriam S.C.A. grew its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 67.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 343,496 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 138,788 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A. owned approximately 0.06% of Progressive worth $71,344,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Aviance Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Progressive in the first quarter valued at $3,628,000. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive during the 4th quarter worth about $1,988,000. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new position in Progressive during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,090,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 66.4% in the first quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,814 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,409,000 after buying an additional 2,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its stake in Progressive by 90.4% during the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 21,056 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,354,000 after buying an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PGR. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Progressive from $250.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Progressive from $239.00 to $237.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Progressive from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $230.00 to $262.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $252.24.

Insider Activity

In other Progressive news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 650 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.11, for a total transaction of $135,271.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,981 shares in the company, valued at $828,485.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Progressive news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $828,485.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 3,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.01, for a total transaction of $850,689.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,015,247.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 147,354 shares of company stock valued at $33,502,680 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE PGR opened at $248.75 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a 12 month low of $134.34 and a 12 month high of $254.83. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $225.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $212.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a market capitalization of $145.69 billion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.61. The company had revenue of $17.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.54 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 10.17%. Progressive’s revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. Research analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 12.2 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 3rd will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.09%.

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.