Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Stock Price

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) had its price target boosted by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $320.00 to $324.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "overweight" rating on the insurance provider's stock. Wells Fargo & Company's price objective suggests a potential upside of 22.06% from the company's current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on PGR. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "market perform" rating and set a $288.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Raymond James raised shares of Progressive from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Progressive from $327.00 to $319.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their target price on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $285.76.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR stock traded down $9.68 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $265.45. The company had a trading volume of 3,648,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,636,730. 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 stock's 50 day moving average price is $273.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $257.86. Progressive has a 52-week low of $201.34 and a 52-week high of $292.99. The company has a market capitalization of $155.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38.

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

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In related news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 11,021 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total transaction of $2,681,299.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $115,255,231.44. This trade represents a 2.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jeffrey D. Kelly sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 27,741 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,935,250. This represents a 26.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,317 shares of company stock worth $14,844,282 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Progressive

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Progressive by 98.2% in the 4th 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 during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 415,628 shares during the period. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 42.3% during the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,849,000 after purchasing an additional 3,534 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 249,958 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Progressive in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,253,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company's stock.

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.