Nicholas Wealth LLC. Invests $892,000 in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Key Points

• Nicholas Wealth LLC has acquired 23,283 shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P., valued at approximately $892,000, as part of their first-quarter investments.
• AllianceBernstein's stock increased by 0.3% to $42.91, with a market capitalization of $4.75 billion, despite a recent earnings report showing a slight miss in EPS estimates.
• AllianceBernstein declared a quarterly dividend of $0.76 per share, representing a 7.09% dividend yield, but has a high payout ratio of 94.96%.

Nicholas Wealth LLC. purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 23,283 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $892,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 496,923 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in AllianceBernstein by 18.1% in the 4th 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. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $12,309,000. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $10,300,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $8,307,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AB has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Barclays increased 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $42.25 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, June 27th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, AllianceBernstein currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $39.67.

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 shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total transaction of $196,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 39,877 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,626,981.60. This trade represents a 10.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total transaction of $205,900.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 20,923 shares of the company's stock, valued at $861,609.14. The trade was a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

NYSE:AB traded down $0.26 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $42.63. The stock had a trading volume of 101,491 shares, compared to its average volume of 522,813. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1-year low of $30.57 and a 1-year high of $43.30. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $40.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.64, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.82.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $853.64 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. AllianceBernstein's revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate 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, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.13%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 4th. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 94.96%.

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.