Voya Investment Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Voya Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 279,853 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 19,076 shares during the period. Voya Investment Management LLC's holdings in Progressive were worth $67,056,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 98.2% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $189,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 2,262.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 433,999 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $103,990,000 after acquiring an additional 415,628 shares in the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Progressive by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,849,000 after acquiring an additional 3,534 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Progressive by 30.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,069,697 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $255,882,000 after acquiring an additional 249,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Progressive during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,253,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised Progressive from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $312.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Progressive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a "market perform" rating and set a $288.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Progressive from $320.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $286.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total value of $110,016.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,302,084.80. This trade represents a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.94, for a total value of $2,759,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 258,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $71,199,142.56. This represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 43,749 shares of company stock worth $11,786,613 in the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of PGR stock traded up $4.59 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $269.60. The company had a trading volume of 2,104,082 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,633,340. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $201.34 and a fifty-two week high of $292.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The company's fifty day moving average is $274.12 and its 200 day moving average is $258.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.05 billion, a PE ratio of 18.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.28 by $0.37. The company had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $21.87 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. Research analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd were paid 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 was Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive's payout ratio is currently 2.70%.

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.