Sawyer & Company Inc Decreases Stock Position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Sawyer & Company Inc lessened its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 19,823 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 425 shares during the quarter. Sawyer & Company Inc’s holdings in Allstate were worth $2,775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ALL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Allstate by 11.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,270,589 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,595,266,000 after acquiring an additional 3,322,673 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Allstate by 123.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,540,295 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $751,264,000 after purchasing an additional 3,064,105 shares in the last quarter. Cowa LLC acquired a new position in shares of Allstate in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Allstate in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $190,865,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Allstate by 46.6% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,121,941 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $459,225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,311,095 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Allstate

In related news, CAO John C. Pintozzi sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.47, for a total transaction of $637,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 10,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,712,069.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ALL. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Allstate from $164.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Allstate from $112.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. TheStreet raised Allstate from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Allstate from $164.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $130.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Allstate currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $162.75.

Allstate Trading Up 0.0 %

NYSE:ALL opened at $170.85 on Wednesday. The Allstate Co. has a 1 year low of $100.57 and a 1 year high of $171.61. The business has a fifty day moving average of $158.75 and a 200-day moving average of $139.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The insurance provider reported $5.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $1.95. Allstate had a positive return on equity of 2.67% and a negative net margin of 0.33%. The company had revenue of $14.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($1.36) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Allstate Co. will post 13.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.92 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 1st. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -296.77%.

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.