AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on AB. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Bank of America downgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.67.

AllianceBernstein Stock Up 0.2%

AB opened at $40.84 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.98, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.85. AllianceBernstein has a 52-week low of $30.57 and a 52-week high of $41.86. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.30.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $838.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $859.36 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. The company’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 86.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AllianceBernstein news, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 5,000 shares of AllianceBernstein stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total transaction of $205,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 20,923 shares in the company, valued at $861,609.14. This trade represents a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Transce3nd LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Luken Investment Analytics LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the 1st quarter worth approximately $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.