AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) has earned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the four ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $39.44.

AB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $38.00 target price on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on AllianceBernstein in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock. Finally, TheStreet raised AllianceBernstein from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its position in AllianceBernstein by 61.7% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 230,600 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,156,000 after buying an additional 88,000 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in AllianceBernstein by 79.1% in the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 20,034 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $622,000 after buying an additional 8,851 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter worth approximately $230,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its stake in AllianceBernstein by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 10,495 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 2,252 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter worth approximately $745,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:AB opened at $34.30 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.93 billion, a PE ratio of 14.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $33.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.43. AllianceBernstein has a 12-month low of $25.83 and a 12-month high of $37.00.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The asset manager reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $857.85 million. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 14.88% and a net margin of 6.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 16th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.98%. This is a positive change from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 132.19%.

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.