First Foundation Advisors Cuts Holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

First Foundation Advisors lowered its holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) by 59.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,500 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 36,150 shares during the period. First Foundation Advisors' holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $909,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Luken Investment Analytics LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter worth $41,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter worth $61,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $96,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $38.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Bank of America cut AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $37.50.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

Shares of AB stock traded down $0.08 on Wednesday, reaching $37.11. The stock had a trading volume of 110,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 440,237. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $41.37. The stock has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.94.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $1.05 per share. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.32%. This is an increase from AllianceBernstein's previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio is presently 112.90%.

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.