AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) Downgraded by The Goldman Sachs Group to “Neutral”

The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $40.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock, down from their previous price target of $42.25.

AB has been the subject of several other reports. TD Cowen cut their target price on AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Bank of America cut AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.50.

AllianceBernstein Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of AB stock opened at $40.45 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.13. AllianceBernstein has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $41.86.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $838.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 18.27% and a net margin of 9.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th were paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.91%. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Daniel G. Kaye sold 4,825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $196,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 39,877 shares in the company, valued at $1,626,981.60. The trade was a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total value of $205,900.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 20,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $861,609.14. This represents a 19.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AllianceBernstein

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at $48,000. Institutional investors 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.