Bank of America Has Lowered Expectations for Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Stock Price

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its target price lowered by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $318.00 to $300.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the insurance provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 9.81% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on PGR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. HSBC downgraded Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. 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. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $281.06.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $273.19 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $260.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $254.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. Progressive has a 52 week low of $201.34 and a 52 week high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. Research analysts forecast that Progressive will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total transaction of $2,386,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,530,756.28. The trade was a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,696 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total value of $479,391.36. Following the sale, the executive now owns 26,697 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,546,174.02. This represents a 5.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,495 shares of company stock worth $16,668,034 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Progressive by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,400,366 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $12,795,262,000 after acquiring an additional 583,376 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Progressive by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,683,807 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,263,763,000 after purchasing an additional 315,411 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Progressive by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,615,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,498,363,000 after purchasing an additional 189,638 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,518,615 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,669,204,000 after buying an additional 170,618 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,843,045,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.