11,478 Shares in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Purchased by Keystone Financial Group

Keystone Financial Group acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 11,478 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $406,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,110,304 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $115,361,000 after purchasing an additional 496,923 shares during the last quarter. 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. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC bought a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,695,000. Invesco Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter worth about $8,307,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,683,000. 19.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

NYSE AB traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $36.97. The company's stock had a trading volume of 358,551 shares, compared to its average volume of 443,050. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 12 month low of $30.57 and a 12 month high of $41.37. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $37.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.97. The company has a market cap of $4.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.97.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 9.46%. As a group, research analysts predict that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $1.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This is a boost from AllianceBernstein's previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.36%. AllianceBernstein's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 112.90%.

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.