Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec Takes $491.92 Million Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec purchased a new position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 2,251,862 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $491,919,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec owned approximately 0.39% of Progressive at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Progressive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bogart Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 235.1% in the first quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kilter Group LLC purchased a new position in Progressive during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Progressive news, Director Jeffrey D. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.33, for a total transaction of $1,514,310.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 22,546 shares in the company, valued at $4,877,376.18. This represents a 23.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.71, for a total value of $1,797,824.92. Following the transaction, the insider owned 32,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,880,743.08. This represents a 20.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 83,449 shares of company stock worth $17,685,203 in the last three months. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PGR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Progressive from $250.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. HSBC lifted their price target on Progressive from $214.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Mizuho set a $236.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Evercore set a $240.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Progressive in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.05.

Progressive Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of PGR opened at $221.77 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $216.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $206.94. The Progressive Corporation has a 12-month low of $189.20 and a 12-month high of $249.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market cap of $128.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The insurance provider reported $5.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.64 by $1.03. Progressive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 32.92%. The company had revenue of $23.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.40 earnings per share. Progressive’s revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 1st. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.01%.

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.