AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.00.

AB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Wall Street Zen raised AllianceBernstein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 10th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays lifted their target price on AllianceBernstein from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

AllianceBernstein stock opened at $41.23 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.56 billion, a PE ratio of 11.08, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.82. AllianceBernstein has a 52 week low of $30.57 and a 52 week high of $41.99.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $838.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 18.27% and a net margin of 9.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th were issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.76%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 86.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AllianceBernstein news, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of AllianceBernstein stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director directly owned 20,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $861,609.14. The trade was a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Daniel G. Kaye sold 4,825 shares of AllianceBernstein stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 39,877 shares in the company, valued at $1,626,981.60. The trade was a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Chelsea Counsel Co. boosted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 807.9% in the 2nd quarter. Chelsea Counsel Co. now owns 95,330 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,892,000 after acquiring an additional 84,830 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 66.5% in the 2nd quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 9,923 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $405,000 after acquiring an additional 3,965 shares in the last quarter. FCG Investment Co acquired a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $362,000. Northside Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $556,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA acquired a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $245,000. 19.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.