Wellington Management Group LLP Reduces Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Wellington Management Group LLP reduced its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 34.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,392,367 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 3,324,110 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 1.09% of Progressive worth $1,531,675,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PGR. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 67,919 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $16,274,000 after buying an additional 5,229 shares in the last quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC now owns 157,058 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $37,633,000 after purchasing an additional 14,061 shares during the last quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Joseph Group Capital Management lifted its position in Progressive by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management now owns 11,637 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,788,000 after buying an additional 1,346 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in Progressive by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,491,193 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $596,915,000 after buying an additional 35,954 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company's stock.

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Progressive Stock Down 10.4 %

Shares of PGR traded down $29.73 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $257.27. 7,337,044 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,615,813. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $150.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38. The stock's 50-day moving average is $269.14 and its 200-day moving average is $256.74. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $201.34 and a fifty-two week high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.16%. Progressive's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Progressive from $313.00 to $317.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Progressive from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Progressive from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $300.00 to $287.00 in a report on Friday. Hsbc Global Res cut Progressive from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Progressive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $280.29.

Insider Activity

In other Progressive news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 962 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total transaction of $234,044.98. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 34,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,463,329.23. The trade was a 2.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total value of $142,324.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $969,024.07. The trade was a 12.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 56,317 shares of company stock worth $14,844,282. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.