AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) Given New $42.00 Price Target at Bank of America

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) had its price target hoisted by Bank of America from $41.00 to $42.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research cut AllianceBernstein from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Friday, September 5th. Barclays raised their price target on AllianceBernstein from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $42.25 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.67.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

AB stock opened at $38.45 on Thursday. AllianceBernstein has a 52 week low of $32.28 and a 52 week high of $43.30. The company has a market capitalization of $4.25 billion, a PE ratio of 11.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.43.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.01). AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 18.63% and a net margin of 8.35%.The business had revenue of $844.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $853.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. AllianceBernstein’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is currently 90.21%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the first quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Costello Asset Management INC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the first quarter valued at approximately $73,000. Finally, Zions Bancorporation National Association UT bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the first quarter worth $77,000. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Company 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.