Insider Selling: Equitable (NYSE:EQH) CEO Sells $1,797,616.00 in Stock

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.28, for a total transaction of $1,797,616.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 765,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,680,087.84. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing 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.

Mark Pearson also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, April 20th, Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of Equitable stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.63, for a total transaction of $1,652,711.00.
• On Wednesday, April 15th, Mark Pearson sold 1,387 shares of Equitable stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $55,521.61.
• On Wednesday, April 8th, Mark Pearson sold 38,313 shares of Equitable stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.05, for a total transaction of $1,534,435.65.

Equitable Price Performance

NYSE EQH opened at $43.77 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.41, a PEG ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $42.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.10. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.19 and a 1 year high of $56.61.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The firm’s revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.35 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EQH has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore set a $63.00 price target on shares of Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Equitable from $59.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Equitable from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.64.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of EQH. Korea Investment CORP grew its stake in shares of Equitable by 24.9% during the 3rd quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 299,391 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,203,000 after purchasing an additional 59,700 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 311,976 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,965,000 after purchasing an additional 36,135 shares during the period. Prana Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Equitable by 80.7% during the third quarter. Prana Capital Management LP now owns 209,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,652,000 after buying an additional 93,660 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Equitable by 90.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,436,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,956,000 after buying an additional 683,595 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advent International L.P. acquired a new stake in Equitable during the third quarter valued at $26,893,000. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.