Allstate CEO Tom Wilson at an investor conference at a panel discussion in March. (Bloomberg News/File)

By Becky Yerak | With three years under his belt as Allstate Corp. chief executive, Tom Wilson said he feels good about the Northbrook-based company’s positioning despite shares that have been trading at less than book value and a business portfolio that has seen stagnant growth. “I feel good about where we’re at,” Wilson said late Wednesday, after the home and auto insurer and retirement products company reported fourth-quarter financial results. “We’ve come through one of the greatest meltdowns in the financial markets ever.”

See also • Allstate turns 4Q profit, trims investment losses

Allstate’s $99.8 billion investment portfolio saw realized losses for the quarter of $33 million before taxes, compared with a loss of $1.9 billion in the same period a year ago.

At least some market share declines have been “intentional on our part,” he said.

“In 2007 and 2008 we decided not to take our prices down when others were,” he said. “We’d take the tradeoff of lower growth if it meant maintaining profits. Now other people started raising their prices throughout last year, and we’re very competitive.”

The company reported results after the market closed on Wednesday. In mid-morning trading Thursday, shares were up 2.5 percent to $29.32.

It earned $518 million, or 96 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $1.13 billion, or $2.10 a share, a year earlier.

Allstate’s book value per share was $30.84 at Dec. 31, compared to $23.47 at the same period a year ago but down from $32.29 at Sept. 30.

Here’s what Wilson had to say on a variety of other matters:

On acquisitions:

“We’re strong financially. If there’s something attractive we’d take a run at it. We’ve bought things in the past that fit our strategy, but we don’t feel we need to buy things to grow our businesses.”

On whether the company has the desire and expectation to remain independent given the pressure its stock has been under:

“We’re a big strong publicly held company, one of the larger market cap insurance companies in the country, and we have a bunch of shareholders who like us and want to stay with us. On a relative value basis, we look just like everybody else. Look at the overall market. Our stock is down but whose stock is not down?”

On whether there’s a change in marketing strategy, spending or tone under a new marketing chief:

“The Great Recession ad” — if you watched State of the Union you would have seen it — “Is this the Great Recession or the recession that made people great?” That broad tone is really resonating for people and differentiating us vs. competitors, as opposed to “Call us and save $12.” I’d expect you see more of that.”

You’ll see us spend more money in online media than we have in the past, he said. Adding, Allstate has backed off some on sponsorships, such as NASCAR. But we love our football sponsorship, he said.

On pitchman Dennis Haysbert:

“We think Dennis is a great partner and great spokesman for us.”

On insurance prices:

Overall pricing for auto insurance “has been relatively flat for three to four years. Companies have been doing a good job of controlling their own costs, as we have. You see overall frequencies coming down over a three, four-year period. All that leads to relatively benign increases in prices.

“We have the belief that it’s better for customers to get a small increase when it’s justified when costs are going up than wait and give a large increase when you least expect it.

I think you’d expect to continue to see modest price increases but you’re talking an average premium of  $425 for six months, so if you’re talking 2 percent that’s $9 . It’s not like the kind of increases people get on health insurance.”

On job cuts:

Allstate Financial is about 90 percent done with a 1,000-person layoff announced last year, and Allstate also cut overhead in its technology operations.

But Allstate is opening a new call center in Texas, creating 600 jobs.

“We could have located that call center anywhere in the world. We decided to locate it in the United States.”

On pruning the number of Allstate agents:

“If you look over the past couple of years the number of agencies has gone down. Part of that decrease is people who don’t take care of good customers. Second, as the business gets more complicated and we have a broad range of products to sell it’s easier to operate a larger agency, and it’s more profitable for an agency owner to have a large agency.”

On efforts to improve customer loyalty, which Allstate has tied to its 401(K) savings plan, instead of operating profits:

“I’d like to see us do more on referrals. I think we could improve there. Loyalty is: Are you satisfied? Do you intend to come back? And will you tell your friends?

We could do a little better job of helping people do more referrals, which would improve loyalty because when you talk about company as a good company and tell your friends you’re reminding yourself why you like the experience and that leads them to stay around more and that leads to higher growth which is what we want to do, is start growing these businesses.”