Bastion Asset Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 37,619 AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Bastion Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 37,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Transce3nd LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Luken Investment Analytics LLC purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter valued at about $61,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,929 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Stock Up 2.4 %

AB stock opened at $41.78 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.85. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a twelve month low of $30.57 and a twelve month high of $41.86.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 9.46%. The business had revenue of $838.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $859.36 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.73 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.66%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is presently 86.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on AB. Barclays upped their price target on AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America lowered AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.67.

AllianceBernstein Company Profile

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm is a related adviser The firm manages separate client focused portfolios for its clients. The firm primarily invests in common and preferred stocks, warrants and convertible securities, government and corporate fxed-income securities, commodities, currencies, real estate-related assets and infation-protected securities.