Equitable (NYSE:EQH) Director Sells 1,000 Shares

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Director Arlene Isaacs-Lowe sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.83, for a total transaction of $52,830.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 19,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,044,079.29. The trade was a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Equitable Stock Performance

Equitable stock traded down $0.69 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $52.85. 1,983,580 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,591,574. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.19 and a 12 month high of $55.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.15 and a quick ratio of 0.15. The business has a 50 day moving average of $48.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.10.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.84 billion. Equitable had a negative net margin of 8.72% and a positive return on equity of 511.35%. The firm’s revenue was down 29.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd were issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Equitable’s payout ratio is presently -36.25%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equitable

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Equitable during the second quarter valued at $1,136,305,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in Equitable by 2,696.7% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 14,272,760 shares of the company’s stock worth $626,289,000 after buying an additional 13,762,414 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Equitable in the fourth quarter worth about $550,995,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in shares of Equitable in the second quarter worth about $399,576,000. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Equitable in the second quarter worth about $244,052,000. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on EQH. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Equitable from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research upgraded Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Equitable from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Equitable from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.75.

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.