Analysts Set Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Target Price at $58.64

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $58.6364.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Barclays set a $50.00 target price on Equitable in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group raised their target price on Equitable from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Equitable from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 7,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total value of $310,104.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $658,694.88. This represents a 32.01% 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 this link. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.63, for a total transaction of $1,652,711.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 789,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,853,688.29. This represents a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 216,919 shares of company stock worth $9,118,088 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equitable

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. CX Institutional increased its stake in shares of Equitable by 30.2% in the second quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equitable by 3.6% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 47,664 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,769,000 after acquiring an additional 1,643 shares in the last quarter. Essential Partners LLC boosted its position in Equitable by 245.2% during the first quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 1,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 770 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Equitable by 15.8% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 889,016 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,991,000 after purchasing an additional 121,261 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in Equitable by 78.7% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 61,432 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,280,000 after purchasing an additional 27,052 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of EQH traded up $0.61 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $48.09. The stock had a trading volume of 323,109 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,899,079. Equitable has a fifty-two week low of $35.19 and a fifty-two week high of $55.36. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.96. The firm has a market cap of $13.13 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. The firm’s revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equitable will post 7.07 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This is a boost from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -42.25%.

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.