FIL Ltd Sells 117,681 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

FIL Ltd cut its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,190,005 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 117,681 shares during the period. Progressive accounts for 0.9% of FIL Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. FIL Ltd owned 0.72% of Progressive worth $1,003,967,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Webster Bank N. A. bought a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 54.7% during the 4th quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in Progressive by 3,000.0% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atala Financial Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James raised shares of Progressive from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, December 26th. StockNews.com cut Progressive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Progressive from $327.00 to $319.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Bank of America lowered shares of Progressive from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $300.00 to $287.00 in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Progressive from $317.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $283.71.

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Progressive Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE PGR traded up $2.60 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $275.78. 3,052,599 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,646,373. The company's 50 day moving average price is $271.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $257.23. The Progressive Co. has a 12 month low of $201.34 and a 12 month high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $161.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.15%. Progressive's dividend payout ratio is 2.78%.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In related news, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 360 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.17, for a total value of $99,421.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 655 shares in the company, valued at approximately $180,891.35. The trade was a 35.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 962 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total value of $234,044.98. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 34,787 shares in the company, valued at $8,463,329.23. The trade was a 2.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 56,317 shares of company stock worth $14,844,282. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Progressive

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.