Cetera Investment Advisers Buys 1,005 Shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 133,252 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,005 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers owned about 0.12% of AllianceBernstein worth $4,942,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AB. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Luken Investment Analytics LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter worth $41,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter worth $61,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on AB. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Bank of America cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at AllianceBernstein

In other news, Director Daniel G. Kaye sold 4,825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $196,860.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,626,981.60. This represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 $861,609.14. The trade was a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of AB stock opened at $39.87 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.72, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $37.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.35. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a one year low of $30.57 and a one year high of $41.86.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $838.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.03%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.02%.

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.