Chelsea Counsel Co. Acquires New Position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. $AB

Key Points

• Chelsea Counsel Co. acquired 10,500 shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. for approximately $402,000 in the first quarter, reflecting growing interest from institutional investors in the asset manager's stock.
• Multiple analysts have recently issued mixed ratings on AllianceBernstein, with Goldman Sachs downgrading the stock from "buy" to "neutral" and Barclays raising its price target to $42.00.
• AllianceBernstein reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.76, missing analyst estimates, and currently maintains a dividend yield of 8.0% with a high payout ratio of 90.21%.

Chelsea Counsel Co. acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 10,500 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $402,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. PFG Investments LLC purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein in the first quarter valued at $228,000. Jump Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 238.9% during the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 100,318 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $3,843,000 after acquiring an additional 70,718 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 360.6% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,913 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 5,412 shares during the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at about $548,000. Finally, Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 28.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 55,856 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,140,000 after acquiring an additional 12,225 shares in the last quarter. 19.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on AB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $42.25 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Friday, September 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AllianceBernstein presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $39.33.

AllianceBernstein Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of AB traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $38.04. 70,101 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 456,367. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a fifty-two week low of $32.28 and a fifty-two week high of $43.30. The business's 50 day moving average is $40.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.84.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.76 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 company had revenue of $844.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $853.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.21%.

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.