JPMorgan Chase & Co. Has $145.56 Million Stock Position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 30.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 755,015 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 177,081 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Allstate were worth $145,560,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Allstate by 117.3% in the 4th quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,896 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $944,000 after purchasing an additional 2,643 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Allstate by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 58,600 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,297,000 after buying an additional 3,800 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Allstate by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 508,664 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $98,065,000 after acquiring an additional 48,382 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 33.3% in the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 401,542 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,413,000 after acquiring an additional 100,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Allstate by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 40,579 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $7,823,000 after purchasing an additional 1,828 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 18,115 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. This represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Argus upgraded Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Allstate from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $219.80.

Allstate Stock Performance

Shares of Allstate stock opened at $207.45 on Wednesday. The Allstate Co. has a 12 month low of $156.66 and a 12 month high of $212.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The company has a market capitalization of $54.98 billion, a PE ratio of 12.21, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $196.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $194.20.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced 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%. On average, research analysts predict that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 EPS for the current year.

Allstate announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase 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 buy up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is 23.54%.

Allstate Company Profile

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.