Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Trims Stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado reduced its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 35,984 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 804 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Allstate were worth $6,937,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Allstate in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Twin Tree Management LP bought a new position in Allstate in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new position in Allstate in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Allstate in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in Allstate in the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. 76.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on ALL shares. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Allstate from $183.00 to $172.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Allstate from $217.00 to $222.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Allstate from $240.00 to $228.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Allstate from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $219.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 18,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. This trade represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Price Performance

Shares of ALL opened at $195.56 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $51.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.51, 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $197.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $194.74.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.54%.

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

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.