AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Short Interest Down 39.3% in February

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 758,200 shares, a decrease of 39.3% from the January 31st total of 1,250,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 603,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.3 days.

Institutional Trading of AllianceBernstein

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AB. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 19.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 4.9% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 7,587 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $265,000 after acquiring an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 29,600 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,098,000 after acquiring an additional 427 shares in the last quarter. Second Line Capital LLC raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 5.9% in the third quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 7,907 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $276,000 after acquiring an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 3.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 15,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $524,000 after acquiring an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. TD Cowen lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $38.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.75.

AllianceBernstein Stock Up 0.8 %

AB stock traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $37.70. 626,852 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 741,404. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.13, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.28. AllianceBernstein has a 12-month low of $30.57 and a 12-month high of $41.37.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. Research analysts predict that AllianceBernstein 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, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $1.05 per share. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is a boost from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.90%.

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.