AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. $AB Position Boosted by J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 62.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,323 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,748 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $503,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AB. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Costello Asset Management INC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at $73,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the first quarter worth $77,000. Bessemer Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the second quarter worth $163,000. Finally, Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the second quarter worth $204,000. 19.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $43.00 price target on AllianceBernstein in a report on Friday, October 24th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $36.50 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price 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. 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 investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.50.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

Shares of AB stock opened at $41.37 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.88. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a twelve month low of $32.28 and a twelve month high of $43.30. The company has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.61, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.86.

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

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a $0.86 dividend. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. This is a boost from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 113.16%.

AllianceBernstein 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.