Moors & Cabot Inc. Purchases 5,876 Shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its position in shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 11.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 58,838 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,876 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. owned about 0.05% of AllianceBernstein worth $2,182,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,454,364 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $85,633,000 after acquiring an additional 265,844 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 239,941 shares during the last quarter. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at about $8,695,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 4th quarter valued at about $6,683,000. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,613,381 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $91,181,000 after acquiring an additional 154,039 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AB opened at $36.76 on Thursday. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $41.37. The company has a market cap of $4.06 billion, a PE ratio of 9.88, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $37.53 and its 200 day moving average is $36.46.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 9.46%. Analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $1.05 per share. This is an increase from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.43%. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is 112.90%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 target price on AllianceBernstein in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. TD Cowen downgraded AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $38.00 to $38.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.75.

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.