Employees Retirement System of Texas Buys 13,003 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Employees Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 27.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 60,392 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,003 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Allstate were worth $11,643,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Allstate in the 4th quarter valued at about $344,354,000. GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Allstate by 64.1% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 4,316,516 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $832,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,685,694 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $215,757,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111,748 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Allstate by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,635,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,291,783,000 after purchasing an additional 389,426 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its stake in Allstate by 69.7% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 708,098 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $136,514,000 after purchasing an additional 290,858 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of Allstate 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 18,115 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. The trade was a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI raised Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Argus raised shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com cut Allstate from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Allstate presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $219.80.

Allstate Stock Performance

NYSE ALL opened at $186.74 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $197.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $194.38. The stock has a market cap of $49.49 billion, a PE ratio of 10.99, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.36. The Allstate Co. has a fifty-two week low of $156.66 and a fifty-two week high of $212.91.

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

Allstate declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the insurance provider to repurchase up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.54%.

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.