Proficio Capital Partners LLC Buys Shares of 13,355 AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 13,355 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $514,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.8% in the fourth 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. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its stake in AllianceBernstein by 14.2% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 35,920 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,332,000 after acquiring an additional 4,472 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in AllianceBernstein by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 20,880 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $774,000 after acquiring an additional 1,630 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in AllianceBernstein by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 156,750 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $5,814,000 after acquiring an additional 12,674 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 371,209 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $13,768,000 after purchasing an additional 16,849 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.25% of the company's stock.

AllianceBernstein Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:AB traded up $0.14 on Friday, reaching $42.91. 185,026 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 166,531. The company has a 50-day moving average of $40.58 and a 200-day moving average of $38.81. The firm has a market cap of $4.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.82. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1-year low of $30.57 and a 1-year high of $43.30.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last released 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 analysts' expectations of $853.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th will be issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio is currently 94.96%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their price target on AllianceBernstein from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $42.25 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, June 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated a "mixed" rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $39.67.

Insider Activity at AllianceBernstein

In related news, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of AllianceBernstein 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 directly owned 20,923 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $861,609.14. The trade was a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Daniel G. Kaye sold 4,825 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were 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 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.

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.