Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Purchases 295 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 7.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,120 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 295 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Progressive were worth $987,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Webster Bank N. A. purchased a new stake in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 54.7% during the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in Progressive by 3,000.0% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Finally, Atala Financial Inc bought a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Progressive from $294.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note 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 for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Finally, HSBC downgraded Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $281.06.

Progressive Price Performance

NYSE:PGR opened at $279.13 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $201.34 and a one year high of $292.99. 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 firm has a market cap of $163.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.38, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $265.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $255.86.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS 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%. Research analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $164,870.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at $8,137,465.20. This trade represents a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total value of $110,016.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,302,084.80. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 66,255 shares of company stock valued at $16,877,471. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive 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.