Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Acquires 2,768 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. lifted its holdings in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 83.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,096 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,768 shares during the period. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.’s holdings in Allstate were worth $973,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALL. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Allstate by 2.8% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 69,917 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $11,163,000 after acquiring an additional 1,894 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co boosted its position in shares of Allstate by 505.3% during the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 7,923 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,265,000 after buying an additional 6,614 shares during the period. Meyer Handelman Co. grew its stake in shares of Allstate by 3.9% during the second quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 172,385 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $27,523,000 after buying an additional 6,460 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital raised its holdings in shares of Allstate by 20.1% in the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,172 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $683,000 after buying an additional 698 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Allstate by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,706 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,231,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ALL. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Allstate from $213.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Allstate from $191.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Allstate from $205.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Allstate from $193.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Allstate from $197.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Allstate presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $186.29.

Allstate Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ALL traded up $7.99 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $179.95. 863,989 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,558,354. The stock has a market cap of $47.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.79, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.48. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $165.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $165.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The Allstate Co. has a 12-month low of $104.29 and a 12-month high of $181.28.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The insurance provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $1.28. Allstate had a net margin of 5.03% and a return on equity of 24.05%. The firm had revenue of $15.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($4.42) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Allstate Co. will post 13.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Allstate Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of $0.92 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 81.24%.

Insider Activity at Allstate

In other news, insider Suren Gupta sold 45,775 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.28, for a total transaction of $8,114,992.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 89,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,942,790.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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.