Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. $AB

Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 42.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 164,892 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 48,906 shares during the period. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC owned about 0.15% of AllianceBernstein worth $6,733,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AB. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the second quarter worth $193,757,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in AllianceBernstein by 51.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 916,574 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $35,114,000 after buying an additional 312,878 shares during the period. 683 Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at about $20,144,000. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in AllianceBernstein by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 380,837 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,590,000 after buying an additional 9,628 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in AllianceBernstein by 45.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 325,018 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,451,000 after acquiring an additional 101,041 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AB. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 5th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on AllianceBernstein from $36.50 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Bank of America increased their price target on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of AllianceBernstein from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AllianceBernstein currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.50.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

NYSE:AB opened at $39.46 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.86. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a fifty-two week low of $32.28 and a fifty-two week high of $43.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.86.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $884.67 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $900.69 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 7.09% and a return on equity of 20.56%. AllianceBernstein’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a $0.86 dividend. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This is a positive change from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 113.16%.

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.