Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Has $1.80 Billion Holdings in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL - Free Report) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,334,926 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 218,771 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 3.53% of Allstate worth $1,799,681,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,501 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $868,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its holdings in Allstate by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 25,905 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $4,994,000 after acquiring an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in shares of Allstate by 34.3% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 19,962 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $3,848,000 after purchasing an additional 5,093 shares in the last quarter. Transce3nd LLC acquired a new position in shares of Allstate in the 4th quarter worth approximately $568,000. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Allstate by 51.1% in the 4th quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 10,634 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,050,000 after purchasing an additional 3,595 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.47% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Allstate

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the firm's 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,115 shares in the company, valued at $3,378,990.95. This trade represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Allstate Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ALL traded up $2.07 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $194.98. 296,486 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,610,521. The company has a market capitalization of $51.70 billion, a PE ratio of 11.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.36. The Allstate Co. has a 52-week low of $156.66 and a 52-week high of $212.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.36. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $197.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $194.69.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share (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, research analysts predict that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Allstate declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the insurance provider to purchase up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. This is an increase from Allstate's previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ALL. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Allstate from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays decreased their target price on Allstate from $183.00 to $172.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com cut Allstate from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Allstate from $240.00 to $228.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $219.27.

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.