Swiss National Bank Purchases 4,400 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,738,400 shares of the insurance provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,400 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned 0.30% of Progressive worth $441,136,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,925,019 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,018,592,000 after purchasing an additional 670,006 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Progressive by 1.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,922,743 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,022,507,000 after buying an additional 92,212 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 3.0% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,392,773 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $497,003,000 after buying an additional 69,709 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 13.5% during the 1st quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,685,868 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $348,671,000 after acquiring an additional 200,118 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 20.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,467,191 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $304,775,000 after acquiring an additional 247,144 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on PGR. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Progressive from $277.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Progressive from $319.00 to $331.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com downgraded Progressive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Progressive from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $269.56.

Progressive Price Performance

PGR stock traded down $1.72 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $255.78. The company had a trading volume of 3,259,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,071,289. The company has a market capitalization of $149.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.30 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The Progressive Co. has a 1-year low of $149.14 and a 1-year high of $263.85. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $252.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.10.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $3.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $19.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $18.95 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 11.27% and a return on equity of 33.10%. Equities research analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,370 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.20, for a total value of $10,937,914.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 473,735 shares in the company, valued at $119,475,967. The trade was a 8.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 6,122 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $235.19, for a total transaction of $1,439,833.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,600,400.04. This trade represents a 15.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,331 shares of company stock worth $16,415,812 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company's stock.

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.