The Progressive Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.10 (NYSE:PGR)

The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, May 10th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.10 per share by the insurance provider on Friday, July 12th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 3rd.

Progressive has a dividend payout ratio of 3.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Progressive to earn $12.19 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 3.3%.

Progressive Stock Performance

Progressive stock opened at $209.46 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $122.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.44, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $209.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $193.84. Progressive has a 52 week low of $111.41 and a 52 week high of $217.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The insurance provider reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.74. The company had revenue of $18.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.88 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.65 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Progressive will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 12,457 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.43, for a total value of $2,546,584.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 312,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,978,003.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Progressive news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 12,457 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.43, for a total transaction of $2,546,584.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 312,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,978,003.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $208,330.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,494,976.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 34,518 shares of company stock worth $7,159,674. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PGR has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Progressive from $161.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a report on Monday, June 17th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $235.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Progressive from $243.00 to $254.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Progressive from $256.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $216.81.

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.