Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. Lowers Position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. trimmed its stake in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 86.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,369 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 8,607 shares during the quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Allstate were worth $192,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Allstate by 11.5% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,270,589 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,595,266,000 after buying an additional 3,322,673 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Allstate by 9.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,039,351 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $669,221,000 after buying an additional 499,056 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Allstate by 3.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,926,917 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $660,318,000 after buying an additional 172,250 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Allstate by 1.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,815,257 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $643,015,000 after buying an additional 63,438 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Allstate by 1.3% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,239,513 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $472,324,000 after buying an additional 53,821 shares during the period. 76.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $130.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Allstate in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $193.00 price objective for the company. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of Allstate from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Allstate from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Allstate from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.71.

Allstate Trading Up 3.8 %

ALL opened at $169.12 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.49 billion, a PE ratio of -136.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.52. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $163.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $146.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The Allstate Co. has a 12-month low of $100.57 and a 12-month high of $174.57.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The insurance provider reported $5.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $1.95. The firm had revenue of $14.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.69 billion. Allstate had a negative net margin of 0.33% and a positive return on equity of 2.67%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($1.36) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that The Allstate Co. will post 13.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.92 per share. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.18%. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is -296.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Allstate news, CAO John C. Pintozzi sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.47, for a total transaction of $637,880.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 10,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,712,069.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Allstate news, insider John E. Dugenske sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.20, for a total transaction of $5,276,200.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 63,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,847,016.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO John C. Pintozzi sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.47, for a total transaction of $637,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 10,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,712,069.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Allstate 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.