Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Lowers Allstate (NYSE:ALL) Price Target to $228.00

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) had its target price decreased by investment analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $240.00 to $228.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the insurance provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price target indicates a potential upside of 19.46% from the stock’s current price.

ALL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays dropped their price target on Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Allstate from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Argus upgraded shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Allstate currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $220.00.

Allstate Price Performance

Shares of Allstate stock opened at $190.86 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $50.58 billion, a PE ratio of 11.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.36. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $196.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $194.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. Allstate has a 12-month low of $156.66 and a 12-month high of $212.91.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities analysts expect that Allstate will post 18.74 EPS for the current year.

Allstate declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the insurance provider to buy up to 3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Allstate

In other Allstate news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of Allstate stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.53, for a total value of $7,480,226.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,378,990.95. The trade was a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Allstate

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 389,426 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Allstate by 2.4% during the fourth 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. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Allstate by 157.9% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,591,138 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,270,705,000 after buying an additional 4,035,629 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 worth $1,236,060,000 after buying an additional 191,147 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC raised its position in Allstate by 64.1% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 4,316,516 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $832,181,000 after buying an additional 1,685,694 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.47% 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.