2775 Sanders Rd., Northbrook 60062; 847-402-5000
Web site: www.allstate.com
Founded: 1931
Employees: 47,200; 9,023 in Illinois
Year-end: Dec. 31
Foreign sales: 1 percent of $24.95 billion
Chief executive: Jerry D. Choate, 59, since 1995
Cash compensation: $2,736,790, up 131 percent
Options granted: $3,212,374, up 185 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: $992,949
Shares owned: 495,659 of 421.3 million
Largest shareholder: FMR Corp., 10.5 percent
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15
High: $98.37
Low: $60.50
April 15: $98
April 17, 1998, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased 1997: $1,547
Purchased 1993: N.A.
Allstate insures one of every eight autos and homes in the U.S. and also sells life insurance. It has more than 20 million customers.
Good weather in 1997 helped reduce auto accidents and lowered Allstate’s catastrophe losses by $407 million, while property and casualty premiums grew 4.5 percent. As a result, operating income increased 52 percent from 1996.
Weather damage from El Nino and tornadoes grabbed the headlines early in 1998, but insurers suffered relatively light losses, which will aid profitability. Analysts expect Allstate to continue to benefit from improved pricing for auto insurance business.
———-
A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 15. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find:
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1997, along with the change from the prior year.
– The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
– The company’s largest shareholder.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, and the change from the prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the value of options granted is based on an assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth, or is determined using the Black-Scholes option pricing model.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which these calculations are based is April 17. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Bloomberg News, New York.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
