Equitable (NYSE:EQH) COO Sells $609,353.52 in Stock

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) COO Jeffrey Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.44, for a total value of $609,353.52. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 79,403 shares in the company, valued at $3,369,863.32. This trade represents a 15.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Equitable Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EQH opened at $42.46 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $11.95 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.61. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.19 and a 52 week high of $56.61. 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 (NYSE:EQH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.35 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.11 EPS for the current year.

Equitable declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 11th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 7.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EQH. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Equitable by 15.8% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 889,016 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,991,000 after acquiring an additional 121,261 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 78.7% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 61,432 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,280,000 after acquiring an additional 27,052 shares in the last quarter. South Dakota Investment Council boosted its position in Equitable by 18.3% during the 1st quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 377,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,015,000 after purchasing an additional 58,506 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Equitable by 26.6% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,000 after purchasing an additional 526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Estate Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in Equitable in the 1st quarter valued at $1,688,000. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Equitable from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Equitable from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Equitable from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Equitable from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.18.

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.