Equitable (NYSE:EQH) Upgraded at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Equitable (NYSE:EQH) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $60.00 price target on the stock, down from their prior price target of $64.00.

EQH has been the subject of several other reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Equitable in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Equitable to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $60.00 target price on shares of Equitable in a research note on Monday. Wall Street Zen downgraded Equitable from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on Equitable from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.36.

Equitable Price Performance

NYSE EQH opened at $47.74 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $46.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.35. Equitable has a twelve month low of $41.39 and a twelve month high of $56.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.68 billion, a PE ratio of -17.30 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.87, a quick ratio of 0.13 and a current ratio of 0.13.

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

Equitable Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equitable news, insider Nick Lane sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.87, for a total value of $1,436,100.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 119,958 shares in the company, valued at $5,742,389.46. This represents a 20.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.17, for a total value of $1,912,349.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 689,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,191,056.80. The trade was a 5.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 173,770 shares of company stock valued at $8,120,014. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equitable

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Equitable during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its holdings in shares of Equitable by 592.6% during the second quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 561 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Equitable in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Hilltop National Bank acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in Equitable during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.