Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Price Target Increased to $239.00 by Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its target price boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $210.00 to $239.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on PGR. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Progressive from $243.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Progressive from $161.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group raised their price target on Progressive from $216.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Bank of America raised their price target on Progressive from $279.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Progressive from $230.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $218.50.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE:PGR opened at $213.30 on Thursday. 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 has a 12-month low of $111.41 and a 12-month high of $217.77. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $209.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $197.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The insurance provider reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.74. The business had revenue of $18.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.88 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.65 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Progressive will post 11.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 3rd were issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.19%. Progressive’s payout ratio is 4.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.40, for a total transaction of $2,104,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 302,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,742,363.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.40, for a total value of $2,104,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 302,958 shares in the company, valued at $63,742,363.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 7,361 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.25, for a total value of $1,525,567.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 35,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,357,996.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 34,518 shares of company stock valued at $7,159,674. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Progressive

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Diversified Trust Co grew its position in Progressive by 12.0% in the third quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 3,136 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $437,000 after acquiring an additional 337 shares during the period. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated purchased a new position in Progressive in the third quarter worth approximately $167,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in Progressive by 9.3% in the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 7,972 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,110,000 after acquiring an additional 675 shares during the period. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Progressive by 37.4% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 171 shares during the period. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth approximately $144,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.