K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc Acquires Shares of 20,000 AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc bought a new position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 20,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $741,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AB. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Luken Investment Analytics LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 115.4% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter worth $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on AB shares. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. TD Cowen cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $38.00 to $38.50 in a report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 price target on AllianceBernstein in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays lowered 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.75.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of AllianceBernstein stock opened at $37.56 on Thursday. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $41.37. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $37.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.23. The company has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.21.

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 net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. As a group, research analysts expect that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $1.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.18%. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is 112.90%.

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.