Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. Buys 492 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. boosted its stake in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 21.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,778 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 492 shares during the quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s holdings in Allstate were worth $536,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,635,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,291,783,000 after buying an additional 389,426 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Allstate by 1.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,496,306 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,190,758,000 after acquiring an additional 126,922 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Allstate by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,228,581 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,178,164,000 after purchasing an additional 74,537 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Allstate by 64.1% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 4,316,516 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $832,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,685,694 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Allstate by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,834,172 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $353,610,000 after purchasing an additional 19,463 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Allstate

In other news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.53, for a total value 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 approximately $3,378,990.95. This trade represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Argus raised shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Allstate presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $217.94.

Allstate Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE ALL opened at $209.16 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $195.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $193.54. 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 52-week low of $156.66 and a 52-week high of $212.91. The stock has a market cap of $55.43 billion, a PE ratio of 12.31, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 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%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Allstate announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the insurance provider to reacquire up to 3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.54%.

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.