Bleakley Financial Group LLC Makes New Investment in Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Bleakley Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 10,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $391,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Equitable during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in Equitable by 64.1% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in Equitable by 124.7% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Equitable in the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings 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 period. 92.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Equitable from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Equitable from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Zacks Research raised shares of Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 target price on shares of Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equitable presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 6,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.83, for a total value of $259,346.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $391,779.78. This trade represents a 39.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.28, for a total value of $1,797,616.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 765,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,680,087.84. This trade represents a 4.93% 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. Insiders have sold 128,503 shares of company stock worth $5,565,789 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Stock Performance

NYSE:EQH opened at $49.08 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $43.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.95. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.19 and a 1-year high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. The firm has a market cap of $13.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.28, 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. The company had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.95 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.35 EPS. Equitable’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 7.13 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st were given a $0.30 dividend. 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 2.4%. Equitable’s payout ratio is -42.25%.

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.