Cable Hill Partners LLC Acquires 374 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Cable Hill Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 26.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,786 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 374 shares during the quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $428,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PGR. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Progressive by 13.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,425,792 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,652,235,000 after acquiring an additional 1,682,213 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Progressive by 21.6% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,749,628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,205,266,000 after acquiring an additional 842,109 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its holdings in Progressive by 75.3% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,494,084 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $379,139,000 after acquiring an additional 641,943 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in Progressive by 102.3% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,024,992 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $260,102,000 after acquiring an additional 518,262 shares during the period. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Progressive during the third quarter worth $125,044,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $46,241.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $964,042.20. This represents a 4.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.09, for a total value of $2,680,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 292,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,539,110.22. The trade was a 3.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,361 shares of company stock worth $13,983,575 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive Price Performance

Progressive stock opened at $273.13 on Thursday. The Progressive Co. has a 52 week low of $186.94 and a 52 week high of $280.25. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $248.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $250.30. 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 stock has a market cap of $160.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.97, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.42.

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

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on PGR. StockNews.com upgraded Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Progressive from $313.00 to $317.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Raymond James upgraded Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Progressive from $277.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Progressive from $295.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.59.

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.