Allstate (NYSE:ALL) Board Declares Stock Buyback Plan

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the insurance provider to reacquire up to 3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on ALL. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Allstate from $209.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Allstate from $186.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Allstate from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Allstate from $220.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Allstate from $187.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $217.94.

Allstate Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of Allstate stock opened at $188.35 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $190.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $190.68. The company has a market cap of $49.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.09, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. Allstate has a 12-month low of $153.87 and a 12-month high of $209.88.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $7.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.40 by $2.27. Allstate had a net margin of 7.28% and a return on equity of 28.20%. On average, equities analysts expect that Allstate will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $1.00 dividend. This is an increase from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.66%.

Insider Activity at Allstate

In related news, CFO Jesse E. Merten sold 40,102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,378,990.95. This trade represents a 68.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Allstate Company 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.