Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Purchases Shares of 1,230 The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,230 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $237,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Allstate by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 577,934 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $109,605,000 after buying an additional 28,584 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Allstate by 117.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,896 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $944,000 after buying an additional 2,643 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its position in Allstate by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 58,600 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,297,000 after buying an additional 3,800 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP increased its position in Allstate by 33.3% during the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 401,542 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,413,000 after buying an additional 100,311 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Allstate by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,497 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,067,000 after buying an additional 2,888 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of Allstate stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 18,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. This trade represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ALL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased 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. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Allstate from $220.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Allstate from $209.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Allstate from $231.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.94.

Allstate Stock Performance

Allstate stock opened at $188.35 on Thursday. The Allstate Co. has a 12-month low of $153.87 and a 12-month high of $209.88. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $190.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $190.68. The stock has a market cap of $49.87 billion, a PE ratio of 11.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.52.

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

Allstate announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the insurance provider to repurchase up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.12%. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.66%.

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.