AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) Lowered to Neutral Rating by Bank of America

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) was downgraded by analysts at Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They presently have a $38.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential downside of 2.74% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AB. TD Cowen cut AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $38.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Barclays lowered their price target 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, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 price objective on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.58.

AllianceBernstein Stock Up 1.6 %

AllianceBernstein stock opened at $39.07 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $37.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.88. AllianceBernstein has a twelve month low of $30.57 and a twelve month high of $41.37. The company has a market capitalization of $4.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.25.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Equities analysts expect that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of AllianceBernstein

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,110,304 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $115,361,000 after purchasing an additional 496,923 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AllianceBernstein by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,026,102 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $112,238,000 after acquiring an additional 33,888 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in AllianceBernstein by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,899,762 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $107,552,000 after acquiring an additional 445,398 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in AllianceBernstein by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 939,649 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $34,852,000 after purchasing an additional 61,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis lifted its position in AllianceBernstein by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Natixis now owns 660,700 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $24,505,000 after buying an additional 93,300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

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.