Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Sells 1,596 Shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lessened its position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 2.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 71,123 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,596 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL owned 0.06% of AllianceBernstein worth $2,471,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the first quarter worth approximately $23,660,000. UBS Group AG raised its position in AllianceBernstein by 39.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 851,533 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $26,423,000 after purchasing an additional 242,765 shares during the period. TCG Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in AllianceBernstein by 2,811.0% in the fourth quarter. TCG Advisory Services LLC now owns 222,928 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,917,000 after purchasing an additional 215,270 shares during the last quarter. General American Investors Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at about $4,192,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 159.4% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 154,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,371,000 after buying an additional 94,989 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen lowered their target price on AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $54.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.69.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

AB traded up $0.55 on Friday, hitting $34.97. The company had a trading volume of 691,198 shares, compared to its average volume of 263,677. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.24. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 52-week low of $25.83 and a 52-week high of $35.45.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The asset manager reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.05. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 15.27% and a net margin of 6.47%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.42 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.61 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 5th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.12%. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 121.16%.

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.