Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Lowers Stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC trimmed its position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL - Free Report) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 512,518 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 6,882 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned 0.19% of Allstate worth $98,808,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ALL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Allstate by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,635,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $6,291,783,000 after acquiring an additional 389,426 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Allstate by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,334,926 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,799,681,000 after purchasing an additional 218,771 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Allstate by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,419,728 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,236,060,000 after acquiring an additional 191,147 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in Allstate by 64.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 4,316,516 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $832,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,685,694 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Allstate by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,681,306 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $709,719,000 after purchasing an additional 106,730 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ALL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Allstate from $217.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Barclays decreased their price target 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. Evercore ISI upgraded Allstate from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com cut Allstate from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 18th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Allstate from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Allstate has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $219.27.

Allstate Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALL traded down $1.84 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $193.02. 1,156,082 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,615,648. 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 company has a market cap of $51.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.36, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.36. The Allstate Co. has a 1 year low of $156.66 and a 1 year high of $212.91. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $197.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $194.69.

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

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This is a positive change from Allstate's previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Allstate's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.54%.

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

Insider Activity

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was 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 directly owns 18,115 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,378,990.95. This trade represents a 68.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company's stock.

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.