D.A. Davidson & CO. Increases Position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 8.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 149,031 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,296 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. owned 0.13% of AllianceBernstein worth $5,528,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AB. CWM LLC grew its stake in AllianceBernstein by 740.7% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 15,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $524,000 after buying an additional 469 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $671,000. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 51,763 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,806,000 after buying an additional 1,710 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,650,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AllianceBernstein presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.40.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

NYSE:AB opened at $36.18 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.72, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $37.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.10. 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 data on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.77%. Research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $1.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.61%. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is 82.80%.

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.