Contrasting AllianceBernstein (AB) and Its Peers

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) is one of 1,744 public companies in the “Capital Markets” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare AllianceBernstein to related companies based on the strength of its dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Volatility & Risk

AllianceBernstein has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AllianceBernstein’s competitors have a beta of 0.79, meaning that their average share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

19.3% of AllianceBernstein shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.5% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of AllianceBernstein shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

AllianceBernstein pays an annual dividend of $3.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.6%. AllianceBernstein pays out 97.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.2% and pay out 29.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares AllianceBernstein and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AllianceBernstein	6.47%	25.97%	25.95%
AllianceBernstein Competitors	318.50%	79.22%	3.72%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for AllianceBernstein and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AllianceBernstein	0	5	1	0	2.17
AllianceBernstein Competitors	5560	20137	22477	642	2.37

AllianceBernstein presently has a consensus target price of $36.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.14%. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies have a potential upside of 26.44%. Given AllianceBernstein’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AllianceBernstein has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AllianceBernstein and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
AllianceBernstein	$4.53 billion	$299.84 million	10.08
AllianceBernstein Competitors	$2.39 billion	$398.52 million	17.86

AllianceBernstein has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its competitors. AllianceBernstein is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

AllianceBernstein competitors beat AllianceBernstein on 12 of the 15 factors compared.

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. The firm employs quantitative analysis along with long-term purchases, short-term purchases, trading, short sales, margin transactions, option strategies including writing covered options, uncovered options and spread strategies to make its investments. The firm obtains external research to complement its in-house research. The firm was formerly known as Alliance Capital Management Holding LP. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. was founded in 1967 and is based in Nashville,Tennessee.