Graham Capital Management L.P. Buys New Shares in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Graham Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 31,394 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,052,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Allstate by 1.2% in the fourth 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 period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,334,926 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,799,681,000 after purchasing an additional 218,771 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Allstate by 157.9% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,591,138 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,270,705,000 after acquiring an additional 4,035,629 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Allstate by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,419,728 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,236,060,000 after purchasing an additional 191,147 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Allstate by 64.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Allstate from $200.00 to $197.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Allstate from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Allstate from $227.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Argus raised shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of Allstate stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 18,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,378,990.95. The trade was a 68.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE ALL opened at $202.57 on Friday. The Allstate Co. has a 12-month low of $156.66 and a 12-month high of $212.91. The company has a market cap of $53.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $199.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.15.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The insurance provider reported $3.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.98 by ($0.45). Allstate had a net margin of 7.28% and a return on equity of 28.20%. The firm had revenue of $14.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.41 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $5.13 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 EPS for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s payout ratio is 27.32%.

Allstate announced that its board has approved a share repurchase 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.