Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $61.2727.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on EQH shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Equitable from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 16th. Raymond James Financial set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Equitable in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Equitable from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Mizuho set a $65.00 price target on shares of Equitable in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Equitable from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th.

Insider Transactions at Equitable

In other Equitable news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 4,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.27, for a total transaction of $203,261.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 15,625 shares in the company, valued at $738,593.75. The trade was a 21.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 6,790 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.65, for a total transaction of $323,543.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 55,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,621,845.95. The trade was a 10.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 157,280 shares of company stock valued at $7,455,677. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equitable

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Equitable in the second quarter worth about $703,060,000. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,645,301 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 7,955.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,424,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,585,000 after purchasing an additional 2,394,721 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings 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. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Equitable by 26.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,428,619 shares of the company’s stock valued at $415,786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,551,551 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Trading Up 1.9%

NYSE:EQH opened at $41.90 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $12.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.12. Equitable has a one year low of $39.53 and a one year high of $56.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.42, a quick ratio of 0.13 and a current ratio of 0.10. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $46.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.42.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -22.41%.

Equitable announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 11th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 7.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.