Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Makes New Investment in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 6,630 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $246,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Luken Investment Analytics LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter worth $37,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter worth $61,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in AllianceBernstein by 19.8% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter valued at about $96,000. 19.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on AB. TD Cowen downgraded AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $38.00 to $38.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 target price on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.75.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

AB opened at $38.31 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $37.85 and its 200 day moving average is $36.83. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 9.46%. On average, equities research analysts predict that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 10.96%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is 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.