Alliance, Franklin Beat Targets

Alliance Capital (AC Quote) shares rose Thursday after the money manager posted a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter.

For its fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, the New York company earned $67 million, or 82 cents a unit, up from the year-ago $10 million, or 13 cents a unit. The strong report came after Alliance earlier this month promised to beat Wall Street's expectations.

Analysts were originally expecting the company to earn 69 cents for the quarter, 3% higher than last year's operating profit of 67 cents. But Alliance said earlier in January that results would be stronger than expected, due to asset growth from both market appreciation and inflows. Alliance reported assets under management of $539 billion at the end of December, up 4.7% from Nov. 30 and up 12.9% from the year-earlier period. ...