Alpine Global Management LLC Buys Shares of 79,979 AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. $AB

Key Points

• Alpine Global Management LLC has made a new investment of approximately $3.06 million in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P., acquiring 79,979 shares in the 1st quarter, marking it as the firm's 25th largest holding.
• AllianceBernstein recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.76 per share, reflecting an annualized $3.04 and a 7.7% dividend yield, with a payout ratio of 90.21%.
• The asset manager reported an earnings miss for the last quarter, with $0.76 EPS versus the consensus estimate of $0.77, and revenue of $844.43 million against expectations of $853.64 million.

Alpine Global Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 79,979 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $3,064,000. AllianceBernstein makes up approximately 0.8% of Alpine Global Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Alpine Global Management LLC owned approximately 0.07% of AllianceBernstein at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. PFG Investments LLC purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at $228,000. Jump Financial LLC grew its position in AllianceBernstein by 238.9% during the first quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 100,318 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,843,000 after buying an additional 70,718 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake 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 period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at $548,000. Finally, Bastion Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,365,000. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AB. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a "mixed" rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $42.25 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on AllianceBernstein from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Wall Street Zen raised AllianceBernstein from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 10th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $39.67.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AB traded up $0.10 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.42. 202,916 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 159,821. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1-year low of $32.28 and a 1-year high of $43.30. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $40.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.01). AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 18.63% and a net margin of 8.35%.The company had revenue of $844.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $853.64 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.7%. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio is presently 90.21%.

AllianceBernstein Company 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.