Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH is Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s 6th Largest Position

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,889,730 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,087 shares during the quarter. Equitable makes up 2.9% of Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 1.71% of Equitable worth $232,996,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQH. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Equitable during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Equitable by 124.7% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 728 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Equitable during the third quarter worth about $38,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Equitable by 92.6% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaCentric Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equitable during the fourth quarter worth about $73,000. 92.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Equitable from $59.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Equitable from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price target on shares of Equitable and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.64.

Equitable Price Performance

Equitable stock opened at $44.11 on Monday. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.19 and a 1 year high of $56.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $41.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.18. The company has a market cap of $12.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.53, a PEG ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. Equitable’s revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. This is a positive change from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio is presently -42.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equitable

In other Equitable news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 7,300 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total transaction of $310,104.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $658,694.88. The trade was a 32.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 14,358 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.44, for a total transaction of $609,353.52. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 79,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,369,863.32. This trade represents a 15.31% 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 162,861 shares of company stock valued at $6,672,783. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.