AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) Price Target Cut to $38.00 by Analysts at Evercore ISI

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) had its price objective trimmed by Evercore ISI from $41.00 to $38.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on AB. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of AllianceBernstein from $37.50 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Bank of America cut shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of AllianceBernstein in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.17.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of AB opened at $37.44 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $37.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.92. AllianceBernstein has a 1-year low of $30.57 and a 1-year high of $41.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion, a PE ratio of 10.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.97.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that AllianceBernstein will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors 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. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. AllianceBernstein’s payout ratio is currently 112.90%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AllianceBernstein

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lifted its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 288,032 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,683,000 after buying an additional 7,071 shares in the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter worth $290,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter valued at $277,000. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of AllianceBernstein by 175.5% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 71,287 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,644,000 after purchasing an additional 45,413 shares during the period. Finally, Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AllianceBernstein during the fourth quarter worth about $264,000. 19.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.