AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Shares Sold by Boston Partners

Boston Partners reduced its position in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,789 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,326 shares during the period. Boston Partners’ holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $1,439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 154,039 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 12.1% during the 3rd 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 raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 7.0% during the 4th 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. raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 59.1% during the 3rd 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. raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 0.5% during the 3rd 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. 19.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen downgraded AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $38.00 to $38.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 price objective on AllianceBernstein in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.75.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of AB opened at $38.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.22, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.25. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a fifty-two week low of $30.57 and a fifty-two week high of $41.37. The business’s 50-day moving average is $37.65 and its 200-day moving average is $36.61.

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

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $1.05 dividend. This is a boost from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.05%. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is presently 112.90%.

AllianceBernstein 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.