First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. Takes Position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 1,684 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Syon Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Allstate by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 2,033 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc bought a new position in shares of Allstate in the 4th quarter valued at about $210,000. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,309 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $883,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Allstate in the 4th quarter valued at about $722,000. Finally, Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in shares of Allstate in the 4th quarter valued at about $146,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. HSBC raised shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $158.00 to $190.00 in a report on Thursday, March 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $164.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $155.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Allstate from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.71.

Insider Transactions at Allstate

In other news, 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 transaction of $5,276,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 63,731 shares in the company, valued at $10,847,016.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, 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 transaction of $5,276,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 63,731 shares in the company, valued at $10,847,016.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 transaction of $637,880.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 10,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,712,069.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Price Performance

NYSE ALL opened at $170.00 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $165.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $149.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The Allstate Co. has a 12-month low of $100.57 and a 12-month high of $176.93.

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 negative net margin of 0.33% and a positive return on equity of 2.67%. The business had revenue of $14.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($1.36) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Allstate Co. will post 13.44 EPS for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a $0.92 dividend. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. Allstate’s payout ratio is currently -296.77%.

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.