CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp Takes $12.31 Million Position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 321,289 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $12,309,000. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp owned about 0.29% of AllianceBernstein as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AB. Transce3nd LLC bought a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at $48,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,929 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at $87,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on AB. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 10th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $38.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $42.25 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, June 27th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AllianceBernstein currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.50.

AllianceBernstein Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:AB traded down $0.14 on Friday, hitting $41.10. The company had a trading volume of 157,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 442,584. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $41.86. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $40.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.82.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $838.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.44% and a return on equity of 18.27%. AllianceBernstein's quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.73 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. AllianceBernstein's payout ratio is presently 86.02%.

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.