Summit Financial LLC Sells 57 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Summit Financial LLC lowered its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,100 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 57 shares during the quarter. Summit Financial LLC’s holdings in Allstate were worth $407,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Allstate in the 4th quarter worth $344,354,000. GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,685,694 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its position in 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 valued at $215,757,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111,748 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Allstate by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,635,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,291,783,000 after purchasing an additional 389,426 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 69.7% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 708,098 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $136,514,000 after purchasing an additional 290,858 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Stock Performance

Shares of Allstate stock opened at $205.37 on Friday. The Allstate Co. has a 12 month low of $156.66 and a 12 month high of $212.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $197.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $194.35. The firm has a market cap of $54.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 research analysts expect that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Allstate announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the insurance provider to reacquire up to 3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.53, for a total value of $7,480,226.06. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. This represents 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. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ALL. StockNews.com downgraded Allstate from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Argus upgraded shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Allstate currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $219.80.

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.