Benjamin Edwards Inc. Decreases Stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. cut its stake in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,226 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 169 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Allstate were worth $592,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Allstate by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,270,589 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,595,266,000 after purchasing an additional 3,322,673 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Allstate by 46.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,121,941 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $459,225,000 after buying an additional 1,311,095 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Allstate by 23.0% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,184,211 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $466,163,000 after buying an additional 782,696 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Allstate by 49.5% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,640,174 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $183,388,000 after buying an additional 542,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Allstate by 16.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,701,607 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $412,396,000 after buying an additional 536,137 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ALL. HSBC upgraded Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $158.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Allstate from $185.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Allstate from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. TheStreet raised Allstate from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Allstate from $145.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.18.

Insider Transactions at Allstate

In other news, insider John E. Dugenske sold 31,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.20, for a total transaction of $5,276,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 63,731 shares in the company, valued at $10,847,016.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CAO John C. Pintozzi sold 4,000 shares of Allstate stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.47, for a total value of $637,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 10,736 shares in the company, valued at $1,712,069.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John E. Dugenske sold 31,000 shares of Allstate stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.20, for a total value of $5,276,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 63,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,847,016.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Trading Down 0.6 %

ALL stock traded down $1.00 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $168.18. 1,667,842 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,686,415. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $165.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $150.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.24 billion, a PE ratio of 37.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 0.51. The Allstate Co. has a 1-year low of $100.57 and a 1-year high of $177.37.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The insurance provider reported $5.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $1.02. Allstate had a return on equity of 15.14% and a net margin of 2.31%. The company had revenue of $15.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($1.30) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that The Allstate Co. will post 13.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.92 per share. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 81.24%.

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.