The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) is Capco Asset Management LLC’s Largest Position

Capco Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 325,422 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 5,121 shares during the period. Progressive makes up 17.5% of Capco Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Capco Asset Management LLC owned about 0.06% of Progressive worth $77,974,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 29.8% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,240 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,867,000 after acquiring an additional 3,498 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 168.9% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 3,848 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $976,000 after acquiring an additional 2,417 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 11.0% during the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 14,381 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,649,000 after acquiring an additional 1,421 shares in the last quarter. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 40.2% during the third quarter. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department now owns 1,363 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $346,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 20.5% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 391,273 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $99,290,000 after acquiring an additional 66,628 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Progressive from $294.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James upgraded Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $264.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $281.06.

Progressive Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:PGR opened at $273.08 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $160.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $261.96 and its 200-day moving average is $254.99. The Progressive Co. has a 52-week low of $201.34 and a 52-week high of $292.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. Equities research analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,696 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total transaction of $479,391.36. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 26,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,546,174.02. This trade represents a 5.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $164,870.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. This trade represents a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 65,495 shares of company stock valued at $16,668,034 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive Company Profile

The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, business related general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property.