Advisory Services Network LLC Increases Stock Holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Advisory Services Network LLC raised its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 17.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,474 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,873 shares during the quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC’s holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $463,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AB. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,110,304 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $115,361,000 after purchasing an additional 496,923 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,899,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $107,552,000 after buying an additional 445,398 shares during the last quarter. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter worth approximately $8,695,000. Invesco Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,307,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,683,000. 19.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AllianceBernstein Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AB opened at $37.00 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.95, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.97. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 52 week low of $30.57 and a 52 week high of $41.37.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 9.46%. On average, analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $1.05 per share. This is a positive change from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.35%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is currently 112.90%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AllianceBernstein has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.50.

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.