Mark Pearson Sells 39,700 Shares of Equitable (NYSE:EQH) Stock

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.28, for a total value of $1,797,616.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 765,903 shares in the company, valued at $34,680,087.84. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through 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 shares were 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 shares were 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 value of $1,534,435.65.

Equitable Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of NYSE EQH opened at $43.36 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $12.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.10. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.19 and a 12-month high of $56.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.12.

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. The business had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The business’s revenue for the quarter 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. Equities research analysts expect that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. 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%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in shares of Equitable by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $130,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its stake in Equitable by 11.7% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 2,634 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after buying an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG grew its holdings in Equitable by 1.5% during the first quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG now owns 19,109 shares of the company’s stock worth $708,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the period. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Equitable by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,882 shares of the company’s stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on EQH shares. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. 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. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price target on shares of Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equitable in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Equitable from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.64.

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.