Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Sells 1,174 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS reduced its position in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,305 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,174 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Allstate were worth $10,855,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in shares of Allstate by 116.2% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 351,206 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $67,709,000 after purchasing an additional 188,753 shares during the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Allstate in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Allstate by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 54,962 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $10,596,000 after acquiring an additional 14,604 shares during the period. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new position in shares of Allstate in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,061,000. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Allstate by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 4,415 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $851,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the period. 76.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on ALL. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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. Evercore ISI raised Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays dropped their price target on Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Argus raised Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Allstate currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $217.94.

Allstate Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE ALL opened at $206.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $54.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47. The Allstate Co. has a 52 week low of $156.66 and a 52 week high of $212.91. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $193.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $193.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 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%. As a group, equities 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 will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. This is an increase from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is 23.54%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 18,115 shares in the company, 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.80% of the stock is currently 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.