Sapient Capital LLC Takes $679,000 Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Sapient Capital LLC bought a new stake in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,952 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $679,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PGR. Dagco Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 106.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. now owns 126 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Bangor Savings Bank lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 60.4% in the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 154 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Riverview Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 48.6% in the 4th quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 162 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 833.3% in the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 168 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on PGR shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Progressive from $227.00 to $210.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Argus upgraded Progressive to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Progressive from $295.00 to $298.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Progressive from $208.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Six equities 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, Progressive has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $238.39.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Progressive news, insider Maribel Pumarejo sold 739 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.25, for a total value of $150,201.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 2,266 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.05, for a total value of $460,111.30. Following the completion of the sale, the executive directly owned 26,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,330,062.50. The trade was a 7.95% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 6,933 shares of company stock worth $1,441,564 in the last 90 days. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progressive Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $203.91 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $200.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $210.40. The company has a market cap of $119.15 billion, a PE ratio of 10.37, a P/E/G ratio of 5.77 and a beta of 0.31. The Progressive Corporation has a 52-week low of $191.75 and a 52-week high of $289.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.37 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 2nd will be issued a $0.10 dividend. 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 (DPR) is presently 2.03%.

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.