Norges Bank Buys New Position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 11,563,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $550,995,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQH. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Equitable by 49.5% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,012,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $559,232,000 after buying an additional 3,645,301 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Equitable by 114.8% in the 4th quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,294,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,640,000 after purchasing an additional 2,294,902 shares during the last quarter. London Co. of Virginia increased its holdings in shares of Equitable by 4,141.8% in the 3rd quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 1,235,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,726,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206,122 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Equitable by 337.4% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,502,360 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab bought a new stake in shares of Equitable during the 4th quarter valued at about $49,209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equitable

In related news, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.44, for a total transaction of $609,353.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 79,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,369,863.32. This trade represents a 15.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Nick Lane sold 4,417 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.45, for a total value of $187,501.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 124,218 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,273,054.10. This trade represents a 3.43% decrease in their position. 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 three months, insiders have sold 154,191 shares of company stock valued at $6,311,969. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Equitable Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of EQH stock opened at $41.35 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.38. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.19 and a fifty-two week high of $56.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.11. 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 announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.35 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equitable declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 11th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 7.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 1st. This is a positive change from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Equitable’s payout ratio is -38.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on EQH. Wall Street Zen upgraded Equitable from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Equitable from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings cut Equitable from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Equitable from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.18.

About Equitable

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.