Nomura Holdings Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. $AB

Key Points

• Nomura Holdings Inc. significantly increased its stake in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. by 95.6% during Q1, bringing its total shares to 136,890, valued at approximately $5.24 million.
• AllianceBernstein reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.76 for the last quarter, which was slightly below analysts' expectations, while revenue was up 5.9% year-over-year to $844.43 million.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.76 per share, yielding 7.7%, with a high payout ratio of 90.21%.

Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) by 95.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 136,890 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 66,890 shares during the quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. owned about 0.12% of AllianceBernstein worth $5,244,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PFG Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at about $228,000. Jump Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 238.9% during the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 100,318 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,843,000 after purchasing an additional 70,718 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 360.6% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,913 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $266,000 after purchasing an additional 5,412 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter valued at about $548,000. Finally, Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 28.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 55,856 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $2,140,000 after purchasing an additional 12,225 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on AB. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the company 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 cut their price target on AllianceBernstein from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Barclays boosted their price target on AllianceBernstein from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded AllianceBernstein from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 10th. One equities research 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 stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $39.33.

AllianceBernstein Stock Down 1.6%

AB stock traded down $0.63 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $38.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 214,709 shares, compared to its average volume of 160,942. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 12 month low of $32.28 and a 12 month high of $43.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50 day moving average of $40.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.30.

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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.01). AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 18.63% and a net margin of 8.35%.The business had revenue of $844.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $853.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio is 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.