Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Decreases Stock Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund cut its holdings in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 16.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 723,181 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 143,086 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund owned about 0.12% of Progressive worth $164,683,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,711 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,718,000 after buying an additional 786 shares in the last quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,232 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $508,000 after buying an additional 408 shares in the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter worth about $135,000. Arax Advisory Partners raised its stake in Progressive by 27.8% in the 4th quarter. Arax Advisory Partners now owns 8,326 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,896,000 after purchasing an additional 1,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aurora Investment Counsel acquired a new position in Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,448,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Jo Murphy sold 5,916 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $1,183,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 41,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,258,000. This represents a 12.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.50, for a total transaction of $55,755.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,227. This represents a 32.61% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 7,343 shares of company stock valued at $1,470,355 in the last 90 days. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Progressive Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE PGR opened at $202.86 on Friday. The Progressive Corporation has a 12 month low of $189.20 and a 12 month high of $269.84. The company has a 50-day moving average of $199.20 and a 200-day moving average of $208.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The company has a market cap of $118.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.31, a P/E/G ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.28.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.13. Progressive had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The company had revenue of $22.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.37 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 2nd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PGR. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Progressive from $235.00 to $223.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Progressive from $216.00 to $215.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Zacks Research raised shares of Progressive from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Barclays set a $247.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $238.11.

About Progressive

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.