Capital Investment Advisors LLC Makes New $201,000 Investment in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 5,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AB. Transce3nd LLC bought a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the first quarter worth $48,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in AllianceBernstein by 19.8% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,929 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 319 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter worth $87,000. 19.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AllianceBernstein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 10th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Barclays upped their target price on AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.67.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of AB stock opened at $40.50 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.79. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a one year low of $30.57 and a one year high of $41.86.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $838.21 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 9.46%. AllianceBernstein’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 86.02%.

Insider Activity

In other AllianceBernstein news, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total transaction of $205,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 20,923 shares in the company, valued at $861,609.14. This represents a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Daniel G. Kaye sold 4,825 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $196,860.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 39,877 shares in the company, valued at $1,626,981.60. This trade represents a 10.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

About AllianceBernstein

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.