LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 543 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 20.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,143 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 543 shares during the quarter. LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Allstate were worth $606,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Allstate during the 4th quarter worth approximately $344,354,000. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in Allstate by 64.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its position in Allstate by 15,062.3% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,119,129 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $215,757,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111,748 shares during the last quarter. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. purchased a new position in shares of Allstate in the 4th quarter worth $143,165,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 valued at $6,291,783,000 after buying an additional 389,426 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Stock Performance

ALL opened at $192.58 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $196.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $194.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.04 billion, a PE ratio of 11.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The Allstate Co. has a 12-month low of $156.66 and a 12-month high of $212.91.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.40 by $2.27. Allstate had a return on equity of 28.20% and a net margin of 7.28%. On average, analysts anticipate that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 EPS for the current year.

Allstate announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the insurance provider to purchase up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This is an increase from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. Allstate’s payout ratio is presently 23.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ALL. Barclays dropped their target price on Allstate from $183.00 to $172.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Argus raised shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Allstate from $240.00 to $228.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $219.27.

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.