Analysts Set Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Price Target at $60.08

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $60.0833.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Equitable from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Evercore set a $63.00 price target on shares of Equitable and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Equitable from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of Equitable from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equitable news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 7,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total value of $310,104.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 15,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $658,694.88. The trade was a 32.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.11, for a total value of $647,689.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 74,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,371,882.28. This represents a 16.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 128,503 shares of company stock valued at $5,840,116 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equitable

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EQH. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 311,976 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,965,000 after buying an additional 36,135 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Equitable in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $550,995,000. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab bought a new stake in Equitable during the 4th quarter valued at $49,209,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in Equitable by 24.4% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 336,272 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,473,000 after acquiring an additional 66,009 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Equitable by 114.8% during the fourth quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,294,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,640,000 after acquiring an additional 2,294,902 shares in the last quarter. 92.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Equitable Stock Down 1.9%

EQH stock opened at $48.43 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.22 billion, a PE ratio of -17.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75. Equitable has a twelve month low of $35.19 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $44.89 and its 200-day moving average is $42.93.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.02. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The business 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 company posted $1.35 earnings per share. Equitable’s revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Equitable will post 7.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 3rd will be issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio is currently -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.