Brokerages Set The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) Price Target at $225.20

Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $225.20.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Allstate from $183.00 to $172.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Allstate from $200.00 to $197.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Allstate from $228.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Allstate from $227.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st.

Institutional Trading of Allstate

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ALL. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Allstate by 157.9% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 4,035,629 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 25.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,709,610 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,424,710,000 after acquiring an additional 2,374,684 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 613.9% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,482,654 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $512,627,000 after acquiring an additional 2,134,893 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Allstate during the 4th quarter worth approximately $344,354,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 64.1% during the 4th 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Stock Up 1.9%

Allstate stock opened at $209.13 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.38 billion, a PE ratio of 12.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.32. The company’s 50-day moving average is $199.48 and its 200-day moving average is $195.65. Allstate has a fifty-two week low of $156.66 and a fifty-two week high of $212.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.40.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last released 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 firm had revenue of $14.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.41 billion. Allstate had a return on equity of 28.20% and a net margin of 7.28%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.13 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Allstate will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. This is an increase from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s payout ratio is currently 27.32%.

Allstate announced that its board has initiated a share buyback 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.