AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has received an average analyst rating of "Hold", with one buy recommendation and four hold ratings among five analysts cover the stock.
• The company's recent earnings report showed a slight miss on EPS estimates, reporting $0.76 against an expectation of $0.77, alongside a 5.9% increase in revenue compared to the previous year.
• AllianceBernstein recently cut its quarterly dividend to $0.76 per share, yielding approximately 7.7%, with a payout ratio of 90.21%.

Shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) have received an average rating of "Hold" from the five analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $39.6667.

A number of equities analysts have commented on AB shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $42.25 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a "mixed" rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th.

AllianceBernstein Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:AB opened at $39.42 on Thursday. AllianceBernstein has a 52-week low of $32.28 and a 52-week high of $43.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $40.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.27. The company has a market capitalization of $4.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.84.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.01). AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 18.63%. The firm had revenue of $844.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $853.64 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.7%. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio is currently 90.21%.

Institutional Trading of AllianceBernstein

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AB. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Costello Asset Management INC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at approximately $73,000. Finally, Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at approximately $77,000. 19.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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