Fiduciary Group LLC Purchases 500 Shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Fiduciary Group LLC boosted its position in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 7.7% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Fiduciary Group LLC’s holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at about $48,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.8% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,929 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at about $87,000. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of AB stock opened at $41.18 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.23. The company has a market capitalization of $4.56 billion, a PE ratio of 11.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.82. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 12-month low of $30.57 and a 12-month high of $41.86.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $838.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.44% and a return on equity of 18.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.77%. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 86.02%.

Insider Activity at AllianceBernstein

In other AllianceBernstein news, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director directly owned 20,923 shares in the company, valued at $861,609.14. This trade represents a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Daniel G. Kaye sold 4,825 shares of AllianceBernstein stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AB. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Bank of America cut 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 report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $42.25 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, June 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.50.

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.