EP Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 9,225 AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 9,225 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $322,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 208,120 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,261,000 after acquiring an additional 5,196 shares during the last quarter. Phase 2 Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of AllianceBernstein during the third quarter valued at about $2,125,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 4.9% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 7,587 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $265,000 after buying an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in AllianceBernstein by 11.9% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 31,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,093,000 after buying an additional 3,339 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 19.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on AB. Barclays reduced their price objective on AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $40.75 to $41.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.40.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

NYSE:AB opened at $36.02 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.32, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.91. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a 1 year low of $30.10 and a 1 year high of $38.96.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.55%. This is a positive change from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is presently 88.25%.

Insider Activity

In other AllianceBernstein news, insider Equitable Holdings, Inc. bought 500,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $34.18 per share, with a total value of $17,090,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 3,066,838 shares in the company, valued at $104,824,522.84. This represents a 19.48 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 2.70% 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.