Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH Stake Increased by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 2.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 841,000 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 20,200 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.30% of Equitable worth $31,210,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of EQH. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Equitable in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Equitable by 124.7% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in Equitable during the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Equitable by 92.6% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 424 shares during the period. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Equitable by 64.1% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.28, for a total transaction of $1,797,616.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 765,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,680,087.84. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 6,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.83, for a total value of $259,346.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $391,779.78. This represents a 39.83% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 88,803 shares of company stock valued at $3,913,078. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on EQH shares. 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. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Equitable from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Equitable from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Equitable from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.08.

Equitable Stock Performance

Shares of EQH opened at $47.45 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $44.39 and its 200-day moving average is $42.93. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.19 and a 12 month high of $55.24. The firm has a market cap of $12.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. Equitable’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.35 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 3rd will be given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Equitable’s payout ratio is currently -42.25%.

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.