Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.30 Per Share

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.30 per share on Monday, June 8th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 1st. This is a 11.1% increase from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27.

Equitable has raised its dividend by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. Equitable has a payout ratio of 13.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Equitable to earn $8.75 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.3%.

Equitable Trading Up 2.9%

Shares of Equitable stock opened at $42.46 on Thursday. Equitable has a 1 year low of $35.19 and a 1 year high of $56.61. The firm has a market cap of $11.95 billion, a PE ratio of -14.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.35 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Equitable will post 7.11 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EQH has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings lowered Equitable from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Equitable from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. Zacks Research lowered Equitable from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Equitable from $59.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Equitable presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.18.

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.