Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Sells 138,882 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC reduced its holdings in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL - Free Report) by 16.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 719,511 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 138,882 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC owned about 0.27% of Allstate worth $138,715,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Allstate by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,635,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $6,291,783,000 after purchasing an additional 389,426 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Allstate by 1.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,496,306 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,190,758,000 after acquiring an additional 126,922 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Allstate by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,228,581 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,178,164,000 after acquiring an additional 74,537 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in Allstate by 64.1% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,834,172 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $353,610,000 after acquiring an additional 19,463 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.47% of the company's stock.

Allstate Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:ALL traded up $0.52 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $205.95. The company had a trading volume of 536,615 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,571,484. The business's fifty day moving average is $196.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $194.28. The Allstate Co. has a fifty-two week low of $156.66 and a fifty-two week high of $212.91. The firm has a market cap of $54.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.36.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $1.00 dividend. This is an increase from Allstate's previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Allstate's dividend payout ratio is 23.54%.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ALL. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Evercore ISI raised Allstate from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Argus raised Allstate from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Allstate from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $219.80.

Insider Transactions at Allstate

In other news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $3,378,990.95. This represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by 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.