State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Purchases Shares of 14,450 AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 14,450 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $536,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the third quarter valued at approximately $180,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 413,165 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $14,919,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter worth approximately $214,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC raised its position in AllianceBernstein by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 24,119 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $895,000 after purchasing an additional 766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Koshinski Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter worth approximately $203,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.25% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on AB. StockNews.com cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI cut their target price on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company 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. Barclays lifted their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.67.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

AB traded down $0.19 on Friday, reaching $40.71. The company had a trading volume of 47,281 shares, compared to its average volume of 441,913. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a fifty-two week low of $30.57 and a fifty-two week high of $41.86. The stock has a market cap of $4.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.94, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.85. The company's fifty day moving average is $37.72 and its 200 day moving average is $37.28.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last released 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 the consensus estimate of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. AllianceBernstein's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.73 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.86%. AllianceBernstein's payout ratio is currently 86.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AllianceBernstein news, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total transaction of $205,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,923 shares in the company, valued at approximately $861,609.14. This represents a 19.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

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.