BNP Paribas Financial Markets Boosts Holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) by 128.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,520 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 40,191 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned approximately 0.06% of AllianceBernstein worth $2,653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,110,304 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $115,361,000 after purchasing an additional 496,923 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,026,102 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $112,238,000 after purchasing an additional 33,888 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,899,762 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $107,552,000 after buying an additional 445,398 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in AllianceBernstein by 7.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis raised its stake in AllianceBernstein by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Natixis now owns 660,700 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $24,505,000 after buying an additional 93,300 shares in the last quarter. 19.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on AB shares. Bank of America cut AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 10th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $38.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $37.67.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

AllianceBernstein stock traded down $0.51 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $39.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 115,910 shares, compared to its average volume of 441,343. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.61, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.85. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $38.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.45. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 52-week low of $30.57 and a 52-week high of $41.86.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $838.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.11%. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio is currently 86.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Daniel G. Kaye sold 4,825 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $196,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,877 shares in the company, valued at $1,626,981.60. This trade represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of AllianceBernstein stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total value of $205,900.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 20,923 shares of the company's stock, valued at $861,609.14. This trade represents a 19.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

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.