Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Trims Holdings in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. decreased its position in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 35.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,914 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 3,250 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $1,347,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Progressive by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 55,261,140 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $12,584,067,000 after purchasing an additional 593,612 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Progressive by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,808,762 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,373,474,000 after buying an additional 78,374 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Progressive by 78.9% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,704,197 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,384,082,000 after buying an additional 6,045,732 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Progressive by 26.1% in the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 11,167,940 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,757,905,000 after buying an additional 2,314,864 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Progressive by 4.9% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,196,111 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,036,230,000 after acquiring an additional 197,603 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Progressive Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE PGR opened at $197.75 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market cap of $115.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.05, a PEG ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 0.31. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $203.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $211.81. The Progressive Corporation has a one year low of $192.02 and a one year high of $289.96.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.67 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $22.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.51 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.37 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.50, for a total transaction of $55,755.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 558 shares in the company, valued at $115,227. This represents a 32.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Karen Bailo sold 3,517 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $212.00, for a total value of $745,604.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 32,348 shares in the company, valued at $6,857,776. This represents a 9.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 6,933 shares of company stock valued at $1,441,564 in the last three months. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on PGR. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Progressive from $295.00 to $298.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $235.00 to $223.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Progressive in a report on Friday, March 27th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $259.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Progressive from $303.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Progressive currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $238.39.

Progressive Profile

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.