15,000 Shares in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Acquired by Virtus Investment Advisers Inc.

Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 15,000 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $556,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AB. Transce3nd LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Luken Investment Analytics LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.8% during 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. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AB. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Bank of America cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $38.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $37.67.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

NYSE AB traded down $1.10 on Thursday, hitting $38.88. 390,474 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 442,450. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $38.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.85. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 52-week low of $30.57 and a 52-week high of $41.86.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last posted 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 company had revenue of $838.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. AllianceBernstein's quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect 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 will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.23%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. AllianceBernstein's payout ratio is 86.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 39,877 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,626,981.60. The trade was a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of AllianceBernstein stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total value of $205,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 20,923 shares of the company's stock, valued at $861,609.14. The trade was a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.