Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Sells 53,098 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lowered its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 28.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 134,754 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 53,098 shares during the quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE owned about 0.05% of Allstate worth $25,979,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Allstate by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,635,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,291,783,000 after purchasing an additional 389,426 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 33,459 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,450,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Allstate by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 3,856 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $743,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Allstate by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 250,211 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,238,000 after buying an additional 29,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Richwood Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Allstate by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,602 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Price Performance

NYSE:ALL opened at $206.60 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $193.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $193.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The company has a market cap of $54.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47. The Allstate Co. has a one year low of $156.66 and a one year high of $212.91.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.40 by $2.27. Allstate had a net margin of 7.28% and a return on equity of 28.20%. Equities analysts expect that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. This is an increase from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.54%.

Allstate announced that its board has authorized 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 purchase up to 3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ALL shares. Evercore ISI raised Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Argus raised shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.94.

Insider Activity

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of Allstate stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.53, for a total value 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 $3,378,990.95. The trade was a 68.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.