Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Purchases New Position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 6,630 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $246,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,899,762 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $107,552,000 after acquiring an additional 445,398 shares in the last quarter. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter worth approximately $8,695,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,683,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 6.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,613,381 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $91,181,000 after buying an additional 154,039 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 939,649 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $34,852,000 after acquiring an additional 61,326 shares in the last quarter. 19.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AB has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 target price on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America cut AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen lowered AllianceBernstein from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $38.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $40.58.

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AllianceBernstein Trading Down 4.6 %

Shares of AB traded down $1.74 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $36.17. The stock had a trading volume of 933,196 shares, compared to its average volume of 432,231. The firm has a market cap of $4.00 billion, a PE ratio of 9.72, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.91. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a one year low of $30.57 and a one year high of $41.37.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $1.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 dividend yield of 11.61%. AllianceBernstein's payout ratio is presently 112.90%.

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.