AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $41.50.

A number of brokerages recently commented on AB. Bank of America upped their target price on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $36.50 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Friday, October 24th.

AllianceBernstein Trading Down 1.1%

AllianceBernstein stock opened at $38.92 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.86. AllianceBernstein has a 1-year low of $32.28 and a 1-year high of $43.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.92 and a 200-day moving average of $39.91.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.01. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 7.09%.The business had revenue of $884.67 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $900.69 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.77 EPS. AllianceBernstein’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a positive change from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.8%. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 113.16%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AllianceBernstein

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the second quarter worth $193,757,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 51.8% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 916,574 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $35,114,000 after buying an additional 312,878 shares in the last quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at $20,144,000. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 380,837 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,590,000 after buying an additional 9,628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 1,154.2% in the 3rd quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 336,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,861,000 after buying an additional 309,673 shares during the period. 19.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.