Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $62.5385.

A number of research analysts have commented on EQH shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Equitable in a research report on Monday, December 29th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Equitable in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Equitable from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, November 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $60.00 price objective on Equitable in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Equitable from $62.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday.

Equitable Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NYSE EQH opened at $47.56 on Thursday. Equitable has a twelve month low of $41.39 and a twelve month high of $56.61. The firm has a market cap of $13.63 billion, a PE ratio of -17.23 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 0.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.87.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.65 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 107.71% and a negative net margin of 5.80%.Equitable’s quarterly revenue was down 52.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.58 EPS. Analysts expect that Equitable will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 24th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 24th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio is presently -39.13%.

Insider Activity

In other Equitable news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 4,300 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.27, for a total value of $203,261.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $738,593.75. The trade was a 21.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.88, for a total value of $1,900,836.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 665,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,861,506.60. This represents a 5.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 166,980 shares of company stock valued at $7,787,372 in the last ninety days. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equitable

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of Equitable by 23.7% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 329,454 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,162,000 after purchasing an additional 63,162 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Equitable in the first quarter worth $439,000. Caxton Associates LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Equitable during the first quarter worth $456,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equitable during the first quarter valued at $7,403,000. Finally, Ascent Group LLC increased its position in shares of Equitable by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 6,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $358,000 after acquiring an additional 424 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

About Equitable

Equitable Holdings, Inc (NYSE: EQH) is a leading provider of life insurance, annuities and retirement plan services in the United States. Through its insurance subsidiary, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, the firm offers a broad range of permanent and term life insurance products designed to help individuals and families manage risk and build wealth. In addition, Equitable provides fixed, variable and indexed annuity solutions to support income planning in retirement, as well as a suite of group retirement and pension plan services for employers and plan sponsors.

The company also maintains an asset management arm that delivers investment strategies across equities, fixed income and alternative asset classes for both retail and institutional clients.