Bank of America Corp DE Makes New Investment in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. $AB

Key Points

• Bank of America purchased 45,729 AllianceBernstein shares during the second quarter, valued at approximately $522,000. Several other institutional investors also initiated positions, with institutions and hedge funds collectively owning 19.25% of the company.
• Analysts maintain a generally neutral outlook, with a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $38.88. AllianceBernstein’s latest quarterly earnings missed estimates slightly, although revenue increased 7.5% year over year.
• AllianceBernstein reduced its quarterly dividend from $0.83 to $0.82 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $3.28 and a yield of approximately 9.4%.

Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 45,729 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $522,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the second quarter worth approximately $176,000. Evolve Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the second quarter valued at about $297,000. Allworth Financial LP bought a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 2nd quarter valued at about $80,000. Balanced Wealth Group LLC bought a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 2nd quarter valued at about $279,000. Finally, Argyle Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $166,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore set a $39.00 price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an "outperform" rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings downgraded AllianceBernstein from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Zacks Research upgraded AllianceBernstein from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on AllianceBernstein from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $38.88.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

AB stock opened at $35.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.15. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1 year low of $34.58 and a 1 year high of $44.11.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The asset manager reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.01). AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The company had revenue of $887.55 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $907.67 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.76 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 12th were issued a $0.82 dividend. This is a drop from AllianceBernstein's previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 12th. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.4%. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 97.04%.

Insider Activity at AllianceBernstein

In other news, Director Charles Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of AllianceBernstein stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.17, for a total transaction of $185,850.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 24,573 shares in the company, valued at approximately $913,378.41. The trade was a 16.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

About AllianceBernstein

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. NYSE: AB is a global investment management and research firm serving institutional investors, retail clients and private-wealth customers. The company provides investment strategies and advisory services across public and private markets, including equities, fixed income, multi-asset portfolios, alternatives and sustainable investing.

AllianceBernstein's offerings include actively managed mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, separately managed accounts, institutional mandates and private-market solutions.

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