California State Teachers Retirement System Sells 32,251 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

California State Teachers Retirement System lowered its position in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 5.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 510,346 shares of the company’s stock after selling 32,251 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Equitable were worth $18,939,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Equitable by 92.6% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 424 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in Equitable during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,712,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL acquired a new position in Equitable during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,133,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its stake in Equitable by 1,126.5% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 291,126 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,332,000 after purchasing an additional 267,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in Equitable by 45.8% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 626,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,120,000 after purchasing an additional 196,729 shares in the last quarter. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EQH has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Equitable from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price target on shares of Equitable and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Equitable from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Equitable from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Equitable currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.08.

Equitable Price Performance

NYSE:EQH opened at $47.69 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $45.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.10. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.19 and a 12-month high of $55.24.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The company had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Equitable

In other Equitable news, Director Bertram L. Scott sold 2,470 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.08, for a total transaction of $101,467.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 27,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,147,405.48. The trade was a 8.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nick Lane sold 4,417 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.45, for a total transaction of $187,501.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 124,218 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,273,054.10. This represents a 3.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 128,503 shares of company stock worth $5,840,116. 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.