Legal & General Group Plc Sells 488,426 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 19.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,047,515 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 488,426 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Allstate were worth $394,740,000 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Allstate by 5.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 577,934 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $109,605,000 after acquiring an additional 28,584 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Allstate by 117.3% in the 4th quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,896 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $944,000 after buying an additional 2,643 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Allstate by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 58,600 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,297,000 after buying an additional 3,800 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Allstate by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 508,664 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $98,065,000 after buying an additional 48,382 shares during the period. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP raised its holdings in shares of Allstate by 33.3% during the fourth 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. 76.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ALL. StockNews.com raised shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays decreased their price target 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. Argus raised Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI raised Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned 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 a consensus price target of $219.80.

Allstate Price Performance

Shares of ALL opened at $180.41 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $47.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.36. The Allstate Co. has a twelve month low of $156.66 and a twelve month high of $212.91. 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 of $197.12 and a 200 day moving average of $194.31.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.40 by $2.27. Allstate had a return on equity of 28.20% and a net margin of 7.28%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. Allstate’s payout ratio is currently 23.54%.

Allstate announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the insurance provider to reacquire up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

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 value of $7,480,226.06. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 18,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. The trade was a 68.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.