70,000 Shares in Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH Acquired by Capstone Investment Advisors LLC

Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 70,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,072,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQH. Redwood Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equitable in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,193,000. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new stake in Equitable in the second quarter worth $870,000. Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco LLC bought a new stake in Equitable in the second quarter valued at $9,918,196,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Equitable in the second quarter valued at $41,369,000. Finally, Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Equitable during the second quarter valued at about $15,871,000. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equitable news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 753,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,570,181.62. This trade represents a 5.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bertram L. Scott sold 1,466 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.15, for a total transaction of $74,985.90. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 26,465 shares in the company, valued at $1,353,684.75. This represents a 5.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 114,541 shares of company stock worth $5,357,784 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Equitable Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EQH opened at $50.01 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $13.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.11, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 0.15. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.19 and a fifty-two week high of $55.15. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.54.

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

Equitable Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio is -36.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on EQH shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Equitable from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Equitable from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised 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. Mizuho set a $68.00 target price on Equitable in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Equitable from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Equitable currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.