Company Reports

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage in securing platform placement will go to those asset managers with greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

While AB ended August 2026 with a record $919.0 billion in managed assets, the firm is relying more on new business in its other managed assets category to lift assets under management, or AUM, than its standard equity and fixed-income offerings.

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage in securing platform placement will go to those asset managers with greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

While AB ended July 2026 with a record $909 billion in managed assets, the firm is relying more on new business in its other managed assets category to lift assets under management than on its standard equity and fixed-income offerings.

AB ended June 2026 with a record $905.5 billion in assets under management, or AUM, up 8.0% sequentially and 9.2% year over year. While fee rates decreased year over year, adjusted second-quarter revenue rose 5.1% to $888 million and adjusted operating margins rose 70 basis points to 33.0%.

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage in securing platform placement will go to those asset managers with greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

While AB ended June 2026 with a record $905 billion in managed assets, the firm doesn't seem to be getting as much benefit from strong equity market performance and better flows across the industry.

With the US equity markets up more than 15% in the second quarter and more than 10% year to date at the end of June 2026, most of the traditional asset managers have positive momentum coming into the second-quarter earnings season.

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage when it comes to getting placement on platforms will go to those asset managers that have greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

AB ended March 2026 with $839 billion in assets under management, down 3.3% sequentially but up 6.9% year over year. While fee rates decreased year over year, adjusted first-quarter revenue rose 3.9% to $871 million, although adjusted operating margins fell 30 basis points to 33.4%.

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage when it comes to getting placement on platforms will go to those asset managers that have greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage when it comes to getting placement on platforms will go to those asset managers that have greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

AB ended December 2025 with $867 billion in assets under management, or AUM, up 0.8% sequentially and 9.4% year over year. With fee rates decreasing year over year, adjusted fourth-quarter revenue declined 1.6% to $957 million, and adjusted operating margins fell 195 basis points to 34.5%.

AllianceBernstein ended September with $860 billion in assets under management, up 3.7% sequentially and 6.7% year over year. Despite fee rates declining year over year, adjusted third-quarter revenue increased 4.7%. Adjusted operating margins were also up 290 basis points year over year to 34.2%.

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage when it comes to getting placement on platforms will go to those asset managers that have greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

AllianceBernstein closed June with $829.1 billion in assets under management, up 5.7% sequentially and 7.7% year over year. Despite fee rates declining year over year, adjusted second-quarter revenue increased 2.3%. Adjusted operating margin was up 160 basis points year over year to 32.3%.

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage when it comes to getting placement on platforms will go to those asset managers that have greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

A confluence of several issues—poor relative active investment performance, the growth and acceptance of low-cost index-based products, and the expanding power of the retail-advised channel—has made it increasingly difficult for traditional asset managers running predominantly active portfolios to generate organic growth, leaving them more dependent on market gains to drive growth in their assets under management. While we believe there will always be room for active management, we feel that the advantage when it comes to getting placement on platforms will go to those asset managers that have greater scale, established brands, solid long-term performance, and reasonable fees.

AllianceBernstein ended March 2025 with $785 billion in assets under management, or AUM, down 1.0% sequentially but up 3.4% year over year. Despite fee rates rising year over year, adjusted first-quarter revenue declined 5.2%. Adjusted operating margins increased to 33.7% from 30.2% year over year.

There was little in no-moat-rated AllianceBernstein's fourth-quarter results that would alter our long-term view of the firm. We are leaving our $39 fair value estimate in place and view the shares as fairly valued.