AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Shares Sold by Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. decreased its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 56.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 17,234 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $508,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 175.5% during the fourth quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 71,287 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,644,000 after purchasing an additional 45,413 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter worth $228,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter worth $6,683,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter worth $246,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 360.6% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,913 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $266,000 after buying an additional 5,412 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at AllianceBernstein

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AB. Evercore ISI cut their target price on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Bank of America lowered AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Barclays increased their target price on AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised AllianceBernstein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.50.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

NYSE:AB opened at $41.10 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $40.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.50. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 12 month low of $30.57 and a 12 month high of $41.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.55 billion, a PE ratio of 11.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.82.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 18.27% and a net margin of 9.44%. The company had revenue of $838.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $859.36 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.79%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 86.02%.

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.