Equitable (NYSE:EQH) Research Coverage Started at Barclays

Barclays began coverage on shares of Equitable (NYSE:EQH) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $59.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on EQH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Equitable from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Equitable from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Monday, July 8th. UBS Group cut shares of Equitable from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price target for the company from $40.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Equitable from $44.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Equitable from $48.00 to $46.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $46.64.

Equitable Trading Down 2.3 %

Equitable stock opened at $39.58 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $12.87 billion, a PE ratio of 12.25 and a beta of 1.42. Equitable has a 12 month low of $24.65 and a 12 month high of $44.50. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.06.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.71 billion. Equitable had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 87.49%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 47.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Equitable will post 6.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. Equitable’s payout ratio is 29.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 9,969 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.09, for a total value of $429,564.21. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 111,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,806,775.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Equitable news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.20, for a total transaction of $1,266,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 678,555 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,635,021. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 9,969 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.09, for a total transaction of $429,564.21. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 111,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,806,775.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 49,938 shares of company stock valued at $2,090,536 in the last ninety days. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in Equitable by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 7,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $263,000 after purchasing an additional 684 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new position in Equitable during the fourth quarter worth about $80,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Equitable by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,096,735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,821,000 after acquiring an additional 22,976 shares during the last quarter. Van Leeuwen & Company LLC raised its stake in shares of Equitable by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Van Leeuwen & Company LLC now owns 11,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $399,000 after acquiring an additional 2,116 shares during the period. Finally, Qsemble Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,477,000. 92.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Equitable

Equitable Holdings, Inc, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, operates as a diversified financial services company worldwide. The company operates through six segments: Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Investment Management and Research, Protection Solutions, Wealth Management, and Legacy.