Northwest Bancshares Inc. Has $817,000 Stock Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Northwest Bancshares Inc. cut its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,219 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Northwest Bancshares Inc.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $817,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Davis Capital Management acquired a new stake in Progressive in the third quarter worth $25,000. WR Wealth Planners LLC increased its position in shares of Progressive by 119.6% during the second quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 123 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop National Bank increased its position in shares of Progressive by 126.0% during the second quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 165 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. increased its position in shares of Progressive by 114.1% during 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. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Progressive during the first quarter worth $36,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,370 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.20, for a total value of $10,937,914.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 473,735 shares in the company, valued at $119,475,967. The trade was a 8.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 2,981 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total transaction of $748,678.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,618,555.95. This trade represents a 10.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 59,209 shares of company stock worth $14,975,979. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of PGR opened at $254.51 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $252.43 and a 200-day moving average of $230.76. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $149.14 and a one year high of $263.85. The company has a market cap of $149.09 billion, a PE ratio of 18.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.30 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $3.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.40 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $19.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.95 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 11.27% and a return on equity of 33.10%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on PGR. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $281.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $267.00 to $277.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $331.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $269.81.

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.