Earnings Preview For The Allstate Corporation (ALL, WRB, AMP)

The Allstate Corporation ALL is expected to announce its Q1 earnings report on Wednesday, April 27, after the markets close. Analysts are predicting earnings per share to stand at $0.69, virtually unchanged from a year ago. Within the last seven days, however, analysts reduced their Q1 earnings expectations by $0.03. The Allstate Corporation, based in Illinois, is a holding company of Allstate Insurance Company. Allstate's business is conducted principally through Allstate Insurance Company and Allstate Life Insurance Company. The company is primarily engaged in the personal property and casualty insurance business, and the life insurance, retirement and investment products business. It conducts its business primarily in the United States. Allstate has four business segments: Allstate Protection, Allstate Financial, Discontinued Lines and Coverages, and Corporate and other. Customers can access Allstate products and services, such as auto insurance and homeowners insurance, through more than 13,000 Allstate agencies and financial representatives in the United States and Canada. The company currently has around 35,000 employees. Investors will be hoping Allstate can follow the success of W.R. Berkley Corporation WRB and Ameriprise Financial AMP, both of which published good quarterly results on Monday. Especially impressive was W.R. Berkeley's performance following its EPS, which was more than 20% higher than analysts had predicted. Investors will also be watching Allstate's Mid-South expansion plans. The company seeks to recruit as many as 24 new agency owners in order to increase its presence in the Tennessee and Mississippi market, according to a company release. Analysts expect Allstate to perform well in the near future. Its revenues are projected to be $6.64 billion in the next quarter, slightly up from the Q1 estimate of $6.23. Earnings per share should rise at a faster pace, however. On Wednesday, the company is expected to announce earnings of $0.69 per share. For the next quarter, analysts are projecting $0.88, an increase of more than 27%. Allstate's results have managed to elude analysts' predictions in recent history, however. Last year, the closest analysts got to predicting Allstate's earnings per share was during the first quarter, when they were 12.7% off. To make matters worse, analysts are generally overoptimistic about the company's performance. In the last quarter of 2010, analysts missed their earnings per share target by as much as 43.2%. With Allstate's competitors posting good quarterly results (especially W.R. Berkley), another big underperformance might direct Allstate's shares downwards.