Horizon Investments LLC Purchases 1,061 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Horizon Investments LLC boosted its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 12.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,738 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,061 shares during the quarter. Horizon Investments LLC's holdings in Progressive were worth $2,289,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 29.3% during the 4th quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,708 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $4,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,468 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 3,003 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $720,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the period. 1ST Source Bank grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 1,256 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in Progressive by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 12,562 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $3,010,000 after buying an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 10,378 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,487,000 after buying an additional 338 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the subject of several recent research reports. 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. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Progressive from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Progressive from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Progressive from $264.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $281.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,696 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total value of $479,391.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 26,697 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 1,542 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total transaction of $435,861.72. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 268,024 shares in the company, valued at $75,759,663.84. The trade was a 0.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 65,495 shares of company stock valued at $16,668,034 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PGR traded down $1.54 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $273.08. The company had a trading volume of 7,280,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,433,405. The stock 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 company's 50 day moving average price is $261.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $255.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The Progressive Co. has a 52-week low of $201.34 and a 52-week high of $292.99.

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

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.78%.

Progressive 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.