Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Reduces Position in The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC decreased its holdings in shares of The Allstate Co. (NYSE:ALL) by 16.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 719,511 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 138,882 shares during the quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC owned about 0.27% of Allstate worth $138,715,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of ALL. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Allstate by 78.9% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 3,909 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $754,000 after buying an additional 1,724 shares in the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Allstate during the fourth quarter worth $218,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Allstate by 55.3% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 22,596 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,356,000 after buying an additional 8,046 shares in the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Allstate by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,746 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $529,000 after buying an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Allstate by 61.9% during the fourth quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 3,191 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $615,000 after buying an additional 1,220 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.47% of the company’s stock.

Allstate Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of ALL stock opened at $202.44 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market cap of $53.61 billion, a PE ratio of 11.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a 50-day moving average of $199.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $196.22. The Allstate Co. has a 1-year low of $156.66 and a 1-year high of $212.91.

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The insurance provider reported $3.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.98 by ($0.45). The company had revenue of $14.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.41 billion. Allstate had a return on equity of 28.20% and a net margin of 7.28%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.13 EPS. On average, analysts predict that The Allstate Co. will post 18.74 EPS for the current year.

Allstate Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Allstate’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Allstate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.32%.

Allstate declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the insurance provider to reacquire up to 3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ALL. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Allstate from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Argus upgraded shares of Allstate from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $227.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Allstate from $200.00 to $197.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Allstate from $217.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.20.

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.