Bank of America Trims AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) Target Price to $51.00

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) had its target price cut by Bank of America from $54.00 to $51.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on AB. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $38.00 price target on shares of AllianceBernstein in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. TheStreet raised AllianceBernstein from a c rating to a b- rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a buy rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $41.19.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

AB opened at $33.28 on Monday. AllianceBernstein has a fifty-two week low of $25.83 and a fifty-two week high of $35.84. The business has a 50-day moving average of $33.68 and a 200-day moving average of $31.77. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a PE ratio of 13.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.25.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The asset manager reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.14. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 15.27% and a net margin of 6.47%. The company had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $857.85 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that AllianceBernstein will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.73 dividend. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 127.80%.

Institutional Trading of AllianceBernstein

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AB. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $85,508,000. Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $23,660,000. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 39.9% during 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 in the last quarter. TCG Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 2,811.0% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,328,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

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.