270,000 Shares in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) Bought by Blackstone Inc.

Blackstone Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 270,000 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $52,053,000. Blackstone Inc. owned 0.10% of Allstate as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Allstate by 117.3% in the 4th quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,896 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $944,000 after acquiring an additional 2,643 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Allstate by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 58,600 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,297,000 after purchasing an additional 3,800 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Allstate by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 508,664 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $98,065,000 after purchasing an additional 48,382 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP lifted its stake in shares of Allstate by 33.3% during the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 401,542 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $77,413,000 after buying an additional 100,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Allstate by 56.0% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 186,792 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $36,012,000 after buying an additional 67,032 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ALL shares. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective (up from $240.00) on shares of Allstate in a research report on Monday. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Allstate from $227.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Allstate from $217.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Allstate from $240.00 to $228.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $223.60.

Allstate Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALL opened at $200.38 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $198.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $194.90. 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.79, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.32.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The insurance provider reported $3.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.98 by ($0.45). The company had revenue of $14.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.41 billion. Allstate had a return on equity of 28.20% and a net margin of 7.28%. The company’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.32%.

Allstate declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the insurance provider to buy up to 3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.53, for a total transaction of $7,480,226.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 18,115 shares in the company, valued at $3,378,990.95. The trade was a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.