Are you in good hands with Allstate? It depends. Looking at its fundamentals shows that Allstate has work to do to get its earnings and revenue numbers higher. On the other hand, big money investors apparently see good things ahead for the insurer; they are heavy buyers of its stock. And Allstate stock's price has indeed risen recently. On Thursday, the Relative Strength (RS) Rating for Allstate climbed into a new percentile, rising to 71 from 67 the day before.
Allstate Stock Has Good, Not-Yet-Great RS Rating
The upgraded 71 RS Rating means that Chicago area-based Allstate stock outperformed 71% of all other stocks in the past year for price performance. It's a good but not yet great rating. Research shows that the market's biggest winners often have an RS Rating of at least 80 in the early stages of their moves. See if Allstate can continue to rebound and clear that threshold.
See How IBD Helps You Make More Money In Stocks
Among its other key ratings, Allstate has a weak 38 EPS Rating, out of 99, and a so-so 66 Composite Rating. However, it also has a B Accumulation/Distribution Rating. The Acc/Dis rating, on a scale of A+ to E, gauges institutional buying by ETFs, mutual funds and the like. The B rating indicates that big money investors are fairly heavy buyers of Allstate stock.
Allstate stock is trying to complete a consolidation with a 144.56 entry. See if the stock can break out in heavy trading. Allstate stock rose to an all-time high 144.46 on April 21. It consolidated after that, in sync with the bear market. However, it's risen about 14% in the last three weeks. On Thursday, Allstate rose 0.8% to 128.02.
In terms of fundamentals, Allstate last quarter reported a 76-cents per share loss, reversing from $4.77 EPS a year earlier. Revenue eased 3% to $12.2 billion in its latest quarter. The insurer tentatively plans to announce third quarter earnings results on the morning of Nov. 3.
Peers In Insurance Group
Allstate holds the No. 21 rank among its peers in the Insurance-Property/Casualty/Title industry group. W.R. Berkley and MGIC Investment are among the group's highest-rated stocks.
When looking for the best stocks to buy and watch, one factor to watch closely is relative price strength.
IBD's unique Relative Strength Rating tracks price performance with a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score. The score shows how a stock's price movement over the trailing 52 weeks stacks up against all the other stocks in our database.
Please follow James DeTar on Twitter @JimDeTar
