Homestead Advisers Corp Raises Position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Homestead Advisers Corp increased its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 350,598 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,500 shares during the period. Homestead Advisers Corp owned approximately 0.13% of Allstate worth $67,592,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. United Bank purchased a new position in shares of Allstate in the 3rd quarter valued at about $209,000. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in Allstate by 29.9% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 40,549 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,694,000 after acquiring an additional 9,336 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Allstate by 49.2% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,247 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $236,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Allstate by 250.4% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,121 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $782,000 after purchasing an additional 2,945 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Allstate by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 269,708 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $51,150,000 after purchasing an additional 66,483 shares during the last quarter. 76.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays lowered their price target on Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Argus upgraded shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $217.94.

Allstate Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ALL opened at $209.16 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $55.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $195.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $193.54. The Allstate Co. has a 52-week low of $156.66 and a 52-week 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.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities research analysts forecast that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. This is an increase from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s payout ratio is currently 23.54%.

Allstate announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the insurance provider to purchase up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,115 shares in the company, valued at $3,378,990.95. This represents a 68.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.