Josh Brown calls a breakout in this insurance stock that has been going sideways for a year

(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — Pure and simple, Allstate (ALL) is a breakout in progress. It's not quite there, but it's close enough. I'm calling it. After a long period of consolidation, we're now seeing price challenging the upper end of the range, which I will describe below after Sean tells you the story. Yes, we're in a market being led by the AI capex boom. No, that doesn't mean AI-related stocks are the only game in town. Are we in good hands with Allstate trading just below record highs? Let's get into it. Best Stock Spotlight: The Allstate Corp. (ALL) Sean — Allstate (and many other insurance businesses) is essentially an insurance premium collection business. They take in premiums, pay out claims, and profit on the spread. The core engine driving premium growth is property-liability insurance (auto and home), which generated $14.8B in earned premiums in Q1 2026, with profitability surging. Profitability increased due to lower-than-expected catastrophe losses and meaningful rate increases (7.2% passed on to homeowners, which you have probably heard about on the news), leading to net investment income growth of 10% year over year. Allstate is also growing its policy base to 212 million, which adds volume on top of the pricing. …