Stevens Capital Management LP Buys 103 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Stevens Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,856 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 103 shares during the quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in Allstate were worth $743,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Allstate by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 250,211 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,238,000 after acquiring an additional 29,238 shares during the period. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Allstate by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,602 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Allstate in the fourth quarter worth $19,370,000. AXQ Capital LP boosted its stake in Allstate by 14.8% during the fourth quarter. AXQ Capital LP now owns 4,997 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $963,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the period. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Allstate by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,380 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $844,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. 76.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ALL shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $206.00 to $244.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Argus raised Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $217.94.

Allstate Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of Allstate stock opened at $206.60 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $193.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $193.09. The Allstate Co. has a 52-week low of $156.66 and a 52-week high of $212.91. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $54.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47.

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

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.54%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was 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 $3,378,990.95. This represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company 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.