AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Announces Dividend Increase - $1.05 Per Share

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 1.05 per share by the asset manager on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.77%. 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 has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 5.9% annually over the last three years. AllianceBernstein has a dividend payout ratio of 106.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect AllianceBernstein to earn $3.83 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $4.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 109.7%.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

NYSE AB traded down $0.31 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $35.67. 675,385 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 669,062. The firm has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a PE ratio of 9.59, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.21. AllianceBernstein has a 52-week low of $30.57 and a 52-week high of $41.37. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.04.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on AB shares. Barclays reduced their price objective 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. Evercore ISI raised their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $42.40.

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.