Allstate is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is engaged in the property and casualty insurance business. Co.'s segments include: Allstate Protection, which provides private passenger auto, homeowners, other personal lines and commercial insurance; Service Businesses, which includes SquareTrade that provides consumer protection plans and related technical support; Allstate Life, which provides interest-sensitive and variable life insurance products, as well as distributes non-proprietary retirement products; and Allstate Benefits, which provides voluntary benefits products, including life, accident, critical illness, and other health insurance products.
When researching a stock like Allstate, many investors are the most familiar with Fundamental Analysis — looking at a company's balance sheet, earnings, revenues, and what's happening in that company's underlying business. Investors who use Fundamental Analysis to identify good stocks to buy or sell can also benefit from ALL Technical Analysis to help find a good entry or exit point. Technical Analysis is blind to the fundamentals and looks only at the trading data for ALL stock — the real life supply and demand for the stock over time — and examines that data in different ways. One of those ways is to calculate a Simpe Moving Average ("SMA") by looking back a certain number of days. One of the most popular "longer look-backs" is the ALL 200 day moving average ("ALL 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the ALL 50 day moving average ("ALL 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Allstate. |
Video: Technical Analysis