National Bank of Canada FI Acquires 258,762 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 39.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 908,764 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 258,762 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned approximately 0.16% of Progressive worth $217,753,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Roundview Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 60,775 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $14,562,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 9,366 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,363,000 after buying an additional 726 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,431,389 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $342,975,000 after buying an additional 32,034 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG raised its position in shares of Progressive by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 39,928 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $9,567,000 after acquiring an additional 4,717 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 4,672 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,119,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $46,241.10. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $964,042.20. This trade represents a 4.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $164,870.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 33,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. This trade represents a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,255 shares of company stock worth $17,250,271 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Progressive from $313.00 to $317.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Roth Mkm increased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Raymond James raised shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Bank of America cut their price target on Progressive from $318.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued 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 target price of $281.06.

Progressive Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:PGR opened at $283.44 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $266.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $256.15. The company has a market capitalization of $166.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. 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 Progressive Co. has a 52-week low of $201.34 and a 52-week high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 2.78%.

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.