Citigroup Inc. Grows Holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 8.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 422,034 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 32,980 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned approximately 0.37% of AllianceBernstein worth $13,573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AB. Cowa LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 45.3% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,815,847 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $65,280,000 after purchasing an additional 565,945 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 130.8% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 926,832 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $33,885,000 after purchasing an additional 525,176 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in AllianceBernstein by 98.0% during the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 501,095 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $23,561,000 after buying an additional 248,055 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in AllianceBernstein by 26.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,183,665 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,683,000 after buying an additional 246,609 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 14.27% of the company’s stock.

AllianceBernstein Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE AB opened at $28.51 on Tuesday. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 12 month low of $25.83 and a 12 month high of $42.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.19 billion, a PE ratio of 12.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.64.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 27th. The asset manager reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $839.98 million. AllianceBernstein had a net margin of 6.14% and a return on equity of 14.43%. AllianceBernstein’s quarterly revenue was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 6th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.12%. This is a positive change from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 3rd. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 117.65%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. TheStreet cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of AllianceBernstein from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $40.80 to $36.75 in a research report on Tuesday, October 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of AllianceBernstein from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 2nd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.31.

AllianceBernstein Company 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.