American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 33,888 Shares of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB)

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,026,102 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 33,888 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in AllianceBernstein were worth $112,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 6.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,613,381 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $91,181,000 after purchasing an additional 154,039 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in AllianceBernstein by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,454,364 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $85,633,000 after buying an additional 265,844 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 61,326 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its holdings in AllianceBernstein by 59.1% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 645,685 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $22,528,000 after acquiring an additional 239,941 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of AllianceBernstein by 0.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 413,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $14,919,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. 19.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AllianceBernstein Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AB opened at $38.01 on Monday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.63. The firm has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.25. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. has a fifty-two week low of $30.57 and a fifty-two week high of $41.37.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 17.88%. As a group, research analysts predict that AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

AllianceBernstein Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $1.05 dividend. This is an increase from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. AllianceBernstein’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 112.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $45.00 price target on AllianceBernstein in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded shares of AllianceBernstein from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $38.00 to $38.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.75.

AllianceBernstein 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.