Yousif Capital Management LLC Reduces Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Yousif Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 5.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 69,975 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 3,680 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $17,280,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its position in Progressive by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 2,532 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $625,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Matrix Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 53.6% in the third quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 2,006 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 19.5% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 9,097 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,246,000 after purchasing an additional 1,486 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 102.1% in the third quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 7,976 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,939,000 after buying an additional 4,029 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management increased its holdings in Progressive by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management now owns 243,622 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $60,162,000 after buying an additional 7,764 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Progressive Trading Up 1.4%

PGR stock opened at $227.47 on Tuesday. The Progressive Corporation has a 52-week low of $199.90 and a 52-week high of $292.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market cap of $133.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.48, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.36. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $222.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $240.17.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.04 by ($0.59). The business had revenue of $21.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.64 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 33.88%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.58 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, insider Steven Broz sold 1,345 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.29, for a total transaction of $307,050.05. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 27,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,323,176.42. This trade represents a 4.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 5,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.48, for a total transaction of $1,142,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 223,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,956,523.52. This trade represents a 2.19% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 9,034 shares of company stock worth $2,047,481 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on PGR. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $268.00 to $261.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. William Blair cut shares of Progressive from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Progressive from $350.00 to $348.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Progressive from $256.00 to $253.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Progressive from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $264.68.

Progressive Company 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.