Avestar Capital LLC Purchases Shares of 1,067 The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Avestar Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,067 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ALL. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Allstate by 28.4% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,945 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $683,000 after purchasing an additional 873 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Allstate by 787.9% during the 1st quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 1,101 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $190,000 after buying an additional 977 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Allstate during the 1st quarter worth approximately $260,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Allstate during the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,480,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in shares of Allstate by 351.6% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 65,221 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,284,000 after buying an additional 50,780 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:ALL opened at $208.20 on Friday. The Allstate Co. has a 52-week low of $134.17 and a 52-week high of $209.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $192.69 and a 200 day moving average of $178.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.13 billion, a PE ratio of 13.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.40.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The insurance provider reported $3.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $1.71. Allstate had a net margin of 6.77% and a return on equity of 26.67%. The company had revenue of $16.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.81 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Allstate Co. will post 16.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Allstate Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.92 dividend. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Allstate from $220.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Allstate from $191.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Allstate from $205.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Allstate from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Allstate from $205.00 to $207.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $217.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Allstate news, insider John E. Dugenske sold 36,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.38, for a total value of $6,959,916.46. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,236,922.32. The trade was a 57.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.