Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH Holdings Lifted by Hsbc Holdings PLC

Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 5.8% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 873,962 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,920 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC’s holdings in Equitable were worth $32,433,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Equitable by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,258,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $822,351,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132,861 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Equitable by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,545,628 shares of the company’s stock worth $645,449,000 after acquiring an additional 2,532,791 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the 4th quarter valued at $550,995,000. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,889,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $232,996,000 after buying an additional 22,087 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Equitable by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,822,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,812,000 after purchasing an additional 193,640 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 target price on Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Zacks Research raised shares of Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Equitable from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Equitable from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Equitable from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.28, for a total value of $1,797,616.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 765,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,680,087.84. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bertram L. Scott sold 2,470 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.08, for a total transaction of $101,467.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 27,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,147,405.48. This trade represents a 8.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 88,803 shares of company stock valued at $3,913,078. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Price Performance

NYSE:EQH opened at $48.15 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $43.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75. The firm has a market cap of $13.14 billion, a PE ratio of -16.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.10. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.19 and a 12 month high of $55.24.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The company had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.95 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

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

Equitable 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.