Stonegate Investment Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Stonegate Investment Group LLC raised its stake in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,554 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Allstate were worth $492,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Allstate by 5.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 577,934 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $109,605,000 after buying an additional 28,584 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Allstate by 117.3% in the 4th quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,896 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $944,000 after acquiring an additional 2,643 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Allstate by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 58,600 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $11,297,000 after purchasing an additional 3,800 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its position in shares of Allstate by 33.3% during the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 401,542 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $77,413,000 after purchasing an additional 100,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Allstate by 38.0% in the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,497 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,067,000 after purchasing an additional 2,888 shares during the period. 76.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ALL. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Allstate from $231.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Allstate from $205.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Allstate from $220.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Allstate from $216.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $218.13.

Allstate Stock Performance

Shares of ALL stock opened at $191.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.63 billion, a PE ratio of 12.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $194.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $187.88. The Allstate Co. has a 52 week low of $153.42 and a 52 week high of $209.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The insurance provider reported $3.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $1.71. Allstate had a return on equity of 26.67% and a net margin of 6.77%. The firm had revenue of $16.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Allstate Co. will post 16.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Allstate Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.92 dividend. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is 23.83%.

Allstate Company Profile

The Allstate Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty, and other insurance products in the United States and Canada. It operates in five segments: Allstate Protection; Protection Services; Allstate Health and Benefits; Run-off Property-Liability; and Corporate and Other segments.