Equitable (NYSE:EQH) Price Target Raised to $68.00 at UBS Group

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) had its price target upped by UBS Group from $63.00 to $68.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Equitable from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 target price on Equitable and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equitable in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.00.

Equitable Trading Down 2.8%

Shares of EQH opened at $45.67 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $43.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.08, a PEG ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75. Equitable has a 1-year low of $35.19 and a 1-year high of $55.28.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.23 billion for 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 revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.35 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equitable 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 $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. This is a boost from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Equitable’s payout ratio is presently -42.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 7,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total transaction of $310,104.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $658,694.88. This represents a 32.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief operating officer owned 79,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,369,863.32. This trade represents a 15.31% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 154,248 shares of company stock valued at $6,608,358 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Equitable

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQH. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Equitable by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,258,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $822,351,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132,861 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Equitable by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,545,628 shares of the company’s stock worth $645,449,000 after purchasing an additional 2,532,791 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Equitable in the fourth quarter worth approximately $550,995,000. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Equitable by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,889,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $232,996,000 after purchasing an additional 22,087 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Equitable by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,822,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,812,000 after purchasing an additional 193,640 shares during the period. 92.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.