AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) Downgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold”

Zacks Research cut shares of AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on AB. Bank of America lifted their price target on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on 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 increased their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $36.50 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Friday, October 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AllianceBernstein currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

AllianceBernstein Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:AB opened at $41.12 on Tuesday. AllianceBernstein has a 12-month low of $32.28 and a 12-month high of $43.30. The firm has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a PE ratio of 13.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.90.

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

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were issued a $0.86 dividend. 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. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.4%. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is presently 113.16%.

Institutional Trading of AllianceBernstein

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the second quarter valued at $193,757,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised 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 valued at $35,114,000 after purchasing an additional 312,878 shares during the last quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at about $20,144,000. LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 9,628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth boosted its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 1,154.2% during the 3rd quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 336,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,861,000 after purchasing an additional 309,673 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

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.