Christopher Sahl
AllianceBernstein(AB Quote - Cramer on AB - Stock Picks) beat expectations for third-quarter earnings, which rose 38% despite a turbulent market. But the New York money manager's shares fell after it reduced its forecasts for full-year earnings.
The stock was down $4.94, or 5.6%, in early trading at $83.23. Diluted net income rose to $106 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with $75.2 million in the same period a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share increased to $1.20 per share, compared with 87 cents a share in the year-ago period. The results exceeded expectations for diluted EPS of $1.14 per share, according to analysts polled by Thomson Financial. AllianceBernstein CEO Lewis Sanders said the company struggled during the third quarter in the face of a turbulent market, which hurt the performance of its value stock and fixed-income products. The performance of its hedge funds was also "disappointing," he said. The company ended the third quarter with almost $812.8 billion in assets under management, up $19.8 billion over the second quarter, but virtually all of the increase, or $19.44 billion, was attributable to market appreciation. Investors added a scant $400 million of net new money during the quarter. Private clients pumped in $2.4 billion, but this was largely offset by $2.1 billion in net redemptions by institutional investors. Sanders also announced that the company had reduced estimates of full-year earnings to between $4.50 and $4.80 per share, down from between $4.90 to $5.25 a share previously. He attributed the reduction to "substantially lower" performance fees on hedge fund services than the company saw last year.
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