Hills Bank & Trust Co Sells 72 Shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Hills Bank & Trust Co decreased its holdings in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,591 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 72 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Allstate were worth $923,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ALL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Allstate by 46.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,121,941 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $459,225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,311,095 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Allstate by 23.0% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,184,211 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $466,163,000 after purchasing an additional 782,696 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Allstate by 49.5% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,640,174 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $183,388,000 after purchasing an additional 542,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Allstate by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,701,607 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $412,396,000 after buying an additional 536,137 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO John C. Pintozzi sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 10,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,712,069.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO John C. Pintozzi sold 4,000 shares of Allstate stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.47, for a total value of $637,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 10,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,712,069.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John E. Dugenske sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $10,847,016.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Price Performance

Shares of ALL stock traded up $1.18 on Thursday, hitting $171.46. 986,246 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,669,328. The Allstate Co. has a 12 month low of $100.57 and a 12 month high of $177.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a 50 day moving average of $166.64 and a 200 day moving average of $152.04. The stock has a market cap of $45.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.51.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The insurance provider reported $5.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $1.02. Allstate had a net margin of 2.31% and a return on equity of 14.44%. The company had revenue of $15.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.30) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that The Allstate Co. will post 14.57 EPS for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a $0.92 dividend. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This is a boost from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio is presently 81.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on ALL. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $140.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Allstate from $166.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of Allstate from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Allstate from $185.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Allstate from $171.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.18.

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.