Jeffrey Hurd Sells 14,358 Shares of Equitable (NYSE:EQH) Stock

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) COO Jeffrey Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.44, for a total transaction of $609,353.52. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 79,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,369,863.32. This trade represents a 15.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Equitable Trading Down 3.6%

EQH opened at $41.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. The company has a market cap of $11.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.65. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.19 and a fifty-two week high of $56.61.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. Equitable’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.35 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 11th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 7.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 124.7% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the period. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 92.6% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on EQH. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Equitable from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Zacks Research cut shares of Equitable from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $59.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Equitable currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.18.

Equitable Company Profile

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.