Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 180,187 AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 180,187 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $6,683,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 6.3% during 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 12.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 939,649 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $34,852,000 after acquiring an additional 61,326 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 59.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 413,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,919,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. 19.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

NYSE:AB opened at $38.01 on Monday. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $41.37. The stock has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.22, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.65 and a 200-day moving average of $36.63.

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, equities research analysts predict that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $1.05 dividend. This is a boost from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.05%. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio is presently 112.90%.

AllianceBernstein 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.