AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.01 EPS

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The asset manager reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.01, Zacks reports. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 18.44% and a net margin of 7.09%.The company had revenue of $884.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $900.69 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis.

AllianceBernstein Trading Up 0.6%

AB opened at $39.56 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.01, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.82. AllianceBernstein has a 1 year low of $32.28 and a 1 year high of $43.30. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $38.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.59.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AB. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $43.00 price target on AllianceBernstein in a research report on Friday. Barclays lowered their price target on AllianceBernstein from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on AllianceBernstein from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $42.25 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AllianceBernstein

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 20,445 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $835,000 after purchasing an additional 865 shares in the last quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in AllianceBernstein during the second quarter valued at about $204,000. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. bought a new position in AllianceBernstein during the second quarter valued at about $210,000. Curi Capital LLC bought a new position in AllianceBernstein during the second quarter valued at about $309,000. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 43.5% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 27,375 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,049,000 after buying an additional 8,304 shares in the last quarter. 19.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.