Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Cuts Position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC decreased its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) by 90.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 26,423 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 261,609 shares during the period. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC's holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $1,012,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AB. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,110,304 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $115,361,000 after purchasing an additional 496,923 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,899,762 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $107,552,000 after buying an additional 445,398 shares during the period. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at approximately $12,309,000. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at $10,300,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at $8,307,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AB has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen cut their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $42.25 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a "mixed" rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of AllianceBernstein from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $39.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AllianceBernstein news, Director Daniel G. Kaye sold 4,825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $196,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 39,877 shares in the company, valued at $1,626,981.60. This represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 sale, the director owned 20,923 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $861,609.14. This represents a 19.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of AB traded up $0.35 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $43.12. The stock had a trading volume of 136,867 shares, compared to its average volume of 525,473. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1-year low of $30.57 and a 1-year high of $43.30. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $40.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.75. The company has a market cap of $4.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.59, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.82.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.01). AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.44% and a return on equity of 18.27%. The company had revenue of $844.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $853.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

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.