Hsbc Holdings PLC Sells 63,017 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Hsbc Holdings PLC trimmed its holdings in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 826,042 shares of the company’s stock after selling 63,017 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC’s holdings in Equitable were worth $39,551,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Equitable by 92.6% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Equitable in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,712,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new stake in Equitable in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,133,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its position in Equitable by 1,126.5% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 291,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,332,000 after acquiring an additional 267,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Equitable by 45.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 626,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,120,000 after acquiring an additional 196,729 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equitable news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.63, for a total transaction of $1,652,711.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 789,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,853,688.29. The trade was a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the company’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 value of $609,353.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 79,403 shares in the company, valued at $3,369,863.32. This represents a 15.31% decrease in their position. 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 216,919 shares of company stock worth $9,118,088. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equitable in a report on Friday, May 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.64.

Equitable Stock Performance

NYSE EQH opened at $47.48 on Tuesday. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $42.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.96. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.19 and a 1 year high of $56.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.10.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.35 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This is an increase from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio is -42.25%.

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.