Polar Capital Holdings Plc Buys New Position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH)

Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new stake in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 196,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,288,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equitable by 111.2% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 678 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 33.2% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 799 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Bank Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Equitable by 61.4% in the fourth quarter. Mizuho Bank Ltd. now owns 1,130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in shares of Equitable by 298.3% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,689 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,265 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Equitable by 31.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EQH opened at $52.86 on Friday. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.46 and a fifty-two week high of $56.00. The stock has a market cap of $16.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.84 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a current ratio of 0.07. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.90.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.14). Equitable had a net margin of 10.51% and a return on equity of 85.70%. The business had revenue of $4.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.43 EPS. Equitable’s revenue was up 105.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on EQH shares. UBS Group raised Equitable from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $49.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Equitable from $69.00 to $64.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Equitable from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Equitable from $68.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Equitable from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equitable news, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 6,666 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.38, for a total transaction of $369,163.08. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 104,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,776,023.24. This trade represents a 6.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.16, for a total transaction of $1,534,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 753,206 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,534,018.96. This represents a 3.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 83,332 shares of company stock valued at $4,141,315 in the last 90 days. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Equitable Profile

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.