Atria Investments Inc Increases Position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Atria Investments Inc increased its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,357 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 762 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in Allstate were worth $3,539,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Allstate by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 577,934 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $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 valued at $944,000 after acquiring 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 valued at $11,297,000 after acquiring 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 valued at $98,065,000 after acquiring 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 valued at $77,413,000 after acquiring an additional 100,311 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Allstate from $209.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price 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. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Allstate presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.94.

Allstate Price Performance

ALL opened at $200.87 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $191.73. 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 Allstate Co. has a 1 year low of $155.59 and a 1 year high of $209.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.24 billion, a PE ratio of 11.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last released its earnings results 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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 represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Allstate’s payout ratio is 23.54%.

Allstate declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the insurance provider to purchase up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Allstate

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of Allstate 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,378,990.95. The trade was a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.