HighTower Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. $AB

HighTower Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 12.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 31,436 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,484 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $1,204,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 380,837 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $14,590,000 after acquiring an additional 9,628 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 357,445 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,258,000 after acquiring an additional 26,577 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 45.1% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 325,018 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,451,000 after acquiring an additional 101,041 shares in the last quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter worth $12,309,000. Finally, Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter worth $10,300,000. 19.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $42.25 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, June 27th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AllianceBernstein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “mixed” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.67.

AllianceBernstein Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:AB opened at $40.09 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $4.43 billion, a PE ratio of 11.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.81. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.13. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a fifty-two week low of $32.28 and a fifty-two week high of $43.30.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $844.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $853.64 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 18.63%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.21%.

About AllianceBernstein

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.