Connective Portfolio Management LLC Invests $1.37 Million in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Connective Portfolio Management LLC bought a new stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 5,720 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,371,000. Progressive makes up approximately 2.0% of Connective Portfolio Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Davis Capital Management acquired a new position in Progressive in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 114.1% in the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 137 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in Progressive in the second quarter valued at about $36,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Progressive during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Progressive in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 9,066 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $2,194,878.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $114,691,485.60. This trade represents a 1.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $46,241.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $964,042.20. This trade represents a 4.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 32,919 shares of company stock worth $8,222,168. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PGR. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. HSBC downgraded Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Progressive from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.24.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $242.17 on Thursday. The Progressive Co. has a 12-month low of $166.92 and a 12-month high of $270.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market cap of $141.87 billion, a PE ratio of 17.60, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $242.00.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $3.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.18. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.10% and a net margin of 11.27%. The company had revenue of $19.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.95 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 13.52 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.17%. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.91%.

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.