Patten & Patten Inc. TN Acquires New Shares in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Patten & Patten Inc. TN acquired a new stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,196 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ALL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Allstate by 5.2% during the 3rd 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 increased its holdings in Allstate by 117.3% during the 4th 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. increased its holdings in Allstate by 6.9% during the 4th 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. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Allstate by 10.5% during the 4th 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. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP increased its holdings in Allstate by 33.3% during the 4th 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. Institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,115 shares in the company, valued at $3,378,990.95. This trade represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Evercore ISI upgraded Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Allstate from $206.00 to $244.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $217.94.

Allstate Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ALL opened at $210.49 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $192.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $55.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47. The Allstate Co. has a 52-week low of $156.66 and a 52-week high of $211.15.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Allstate announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the insurance provider to repurchase up to 3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This is an increase from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.54%.

Allstate 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.