5,450 Shares in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Acquired by Summit Asset Management LLC

Summit Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 5,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC increased its position in AllianceBernstein by 6.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,613,381 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $91,181,000 after purchasing an additional 154,039 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in AllianceBernstein by 12.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,454,364 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $85,633,000 after buying an additional 265,844 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in AllianceBernstein by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 939,649 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $34,852,000 after buying an additional 61,326 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in AllianceBernstein by 59.1% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 645,685 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $22,528,000 after buying an additional 239,941 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in AllianceBernstein by 0.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 413,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $14,919,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on AB. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 price target on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.83.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

NYSE AB opened at $35.71 on Friday. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a one year low of $30.57 and a one year high of $41.37. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a PE ratio of 9.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.21.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. Equities analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $1.05 per share. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.76%. This is an increase from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 112.90%.

AllianceBernstein Company 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.