Vanguard Group Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,635,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 389,426 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of Allstate worth $6,291,783,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Allstate in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Allstate during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Twin Tree Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Allstate during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Allstate during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Hopwood Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Allstate during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Stock Down 1.7 %

ALL opened at $206.60 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $193.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $193.12. The Allstate Co. has a twelve month low of $156.66 and a twelve month high of $212.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16, a PEG 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 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.54%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Allstate

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the company’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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. This represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.