Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.27

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 21st, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.27 per share on Monday, June 9th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This is a 12.5% increase from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Equitable has increased its dividend by an average of 9.8% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Equitable has a payout ratio of 11.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Equitable to earn $8.29 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.6%.

Equitable Price Performance

Shares of EQH opened at $52.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 0.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07. Equitable has a twelve month low of $36.46 and a twelve month high of $56.00. The company has a market capitalization of $15.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.64 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $50.31 and a 200 day moving average of $50.16.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.14). Equitable had a net margin of 10.51% and a return on equity of 85.70%. The business had revenue of $4.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.43 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 105.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Equitable will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.16, for a total transaction of $1,534,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 753,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,534,018.96. This trade represents a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Nick Lane sold 5,000 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.12, for a total transaction of $255,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 139,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,109,411.76. The trade was a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 118,332 shares of company stock valued at $5,976,400 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equitable

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Equitable stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 92.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 882 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 424 shares during the quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Equitable were worth $46,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on EQH. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Equitable from $69.00 to $64.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group raised shares of Equitable from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $49.00 to $77.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Equitable from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.83.

Equitable Company Profile

Equitable Holdings, Inc, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, operates as a diversified financial services company worldwide. The company operates through six segments: Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Investment Management and Research, Protection Solutions, Wealth Management, and Legacy.