Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor Buys Shares of 4,743,519 Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor bought a new stake in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 4,743,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,146,000. Equitable comprises 1.7% of Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor’s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor owned 1.74% of Equitable as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Equitable in the second quarter valued at $69,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Equitable during the 2nd quarter worth $93,472,000. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equitable in the 2nd quarter worth about $424,000. Community Trust & Investment Co. increased its position in shares of Equitable by 22.8% in the 2nd quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 476,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,926,000 after purchasing an additional 88,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Equitable by 30.8% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 11,919 shares of the company’s stock valued at $523,000 after purchasing an additional 2,805 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Stock Performance

EQH stock opened at $53.02 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.02, a PEG ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.27. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.19 and a fifty-two week high of $55.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.05. Equitable had a negative net margin of 8.72% and a positive return on equity of 511.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.10 EPS. Equitable’s quarterly revenue was down 29.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on EQH. UBS Group lifted their price target on Equitable from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Equitable from $62.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Zacks Research upgraded Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Barclays boosted their price target on Equitable from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Equitable from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equitable

In related news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.54, for a total transaction of $1,927,038.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 753,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,570,181.62. The trade was a 5.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.11, for a total value of $647,689.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 74,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,371,882.28. This trade represents a 16.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 114,541 shares of company stock valued at $5,357,784. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.