Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Grows Stock Holdings in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 111,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,079 shares during the quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Allstate were worth $21,491,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Allstate by 5.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 577,934 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $109,605,000 after purchasing an additional 28,584 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Allstate by 117.3% during the fourth quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,896 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $944,000 after purchasing an additional 2,643 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Allstate by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 58,600 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,297,000 after purchasing an additional 3,800 shares in the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP lifted 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 worth $77,413,000 after purchasing an additional 100,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Allstate by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 508,664 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $98,065,000 after purchasing an additional 48,382 shares in the last quarter. 76.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ALL. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Allstate from $209.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Allstate from $216.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Allstate from $206.00 to $244.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $217.94.

Allstate Stock Up 1.4 %

ALL stock opened at $201.87 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The Allstate Co. has a 1-year low of $153.87 and a 1-year high of $209.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $190.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $191.27. The firm has a market cap of $53.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.88, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.52.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.40 by $2.27. Allstate had a net margin of 7.28% and a return on equity of 28.20%. Research analysts predict that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 EPS for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.54%.

Allstate declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the insurance provider to buy up to 3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Allstate

In other news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.53, for a total transaction of $7,480,226.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 18,115 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. This represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

About Allstate

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.