Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Sells 2,543 Shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund lessened its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 13.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,005 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 2,543 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in Progressive were worth $4,813,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PGR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,843,045,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 39,285.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,046,037 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $862,059,000 after acquiring an additional 3,038,303 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 67.6% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,171,501 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,239,143,000 after acquiring an additional 2,085,833 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth approximately $408,416,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Progressive by 34.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,058,187 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,451,602,000 after buying an additional 1,547,677 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Price Performance

NYSE PGR opened at $261.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $275.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $264.47. The Progressive Corporation has a 1 year low of $204.88 and a 1 year high of $292.99. The company has a market cap of $153.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.62, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.40.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.37. Progressive had a net margin of 11.10% and a return on equity of 33.50%. The company had revenue of $22.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.87 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.59, for a total transaction of $2,685,900.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 248,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $66,616,766.16. This represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,267 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.81, for a total transaction of $351,985.27. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 28,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,025,375.28. The trade was a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 34,157 shares of company stock valued at $9,352,400. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PGR shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $282.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $285.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $285.00 to $291.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $288.88.

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.