Natixis Has $24.51 Million Holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Natixis lifted its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) by 16.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 660,700 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 93,300 shares during the quarter. Natixis owned about 0.57% of AllianceBernstein worth $24,505,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew 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 valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC grew its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 29,600 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,098,000 after buying an additional 427 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in AllianceBernstein by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 19,071 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $679,000 after buying an additional 549 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance lifted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 9,518 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $353,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 19,930 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $739,000 after acquiring an additional 711 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays upped 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, April 16th. Bank of America lowered AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $38.00 price objective 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 issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $37.50.

AllianceBernstein Trading Up 2.5 %

NYSE:AB traded up $0.92 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $37.75. The company's stock had a trading volume of 187,798 shares, compared to its average volume of 442,758. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $37.09 and a 200-day moving average of $37.01. The company has a market capitalization of $4.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.97. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a fifty-two week low of $30.57 and a fifty-two week high of $41.37.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 9.46%. On average, equities 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $1.05 dividend. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.13%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from AllianceBernstein's previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. AllianceBernstein's payout ratio is currently 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.