AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. $AB Shares Sold by Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lowered its holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 2.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,901 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 346 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the first quarter worth $32,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at $38,000. Costello Asset Management INC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at $73,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the first quarter valued at $77,000. Finally, Tyche Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the second quarter valued at $204,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Stock Down 0.2%

AB opened at $39.28 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.66, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.82. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 52-week low of $32.28 and a 52-week high of $43.30. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.55.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $884.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $900.69 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 18.63%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a $0.86 dividend. This is an increase from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 90.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AB has been the topic of several analyst reports. Zacks Research lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “negative” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.33.

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.