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

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on AB shares. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Thursday, January 16th. TD Cowen lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $38.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Barclays lowered 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. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AB. FMR LLC raised its stake in AllianceBernstein by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,110,304 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $115,361,000 after purchasing an additional 496,923 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in AllianceBernstein by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,899,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $107,552,000 after purchasing an additional 445,398 shares during the last quarter. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at about $10,300,000. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in AllianceBernstein by 1,019.7% in the 3rd quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 280,961 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,803,000 after purchasing an additional 255,868 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. raised its stake in AllianceBernstein by 59.1% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 645,685 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $22,528,000 after purchasing an additional 239,941 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AB traded up $0.29 during trading on Friday, hitting $37.70. 626,852 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 741,404. The company has a market cap of $4.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.13, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.21. AllianceBernstein has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $41.37. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $37.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.28.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 9.46%. On average, research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid 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 an increase from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 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.