AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) Increases Dividend to $1.05 Per Share

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE:AB) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of 1.05 per share by the asset manager on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from AllianceBernstein’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77.

AllianceBernstein has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 5.9% per year over the last three years. AllianceBernstein has a payout ratio of 106.6% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect AllianceBernstein to earn $3.48 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $4.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 120.7%.

AllianceBernstein Price Performance

Shares of AllianceBernstein stock traded up $0.38 during trading on Friday, hitting $36.42. 1,281,744 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 610,259. AllianceBernstein has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $41.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.44, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.99.

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.18. AllianceBernstein had a return on equity of 16.23% and a net margin of 9.22%. On average, equities analysts predict that AllianceBernstein will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI raised their target price on AllianceBernstein from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays dropped their target price on AllianceBernstein from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AllianceBernstein has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.40.

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.