Brokerages Set Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Price Target at $58.18

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $58.6364.

EQH has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Equitable from $59.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Equitable from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equitable in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Equitable from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th.

Equitable Stock Up 1.1%

EQH stock opened at $44.11 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75. Equitable has a 1-year low of $35.19 and a 1-year high of $56.61. The stock has a market cap of $12.42 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.10.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Equitable will post 7.07 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a boost from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Equitable’s payout ratio is currently -42.25%.

Insider Transactions at Equitable

In other news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 7,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total transaction of $310,104.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 15,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $658,694.88. This represents a 32.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.63, for a total value of $1,652,711.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 789,183 shares in the company, valued at $32,853,688.29. This represents a 4.79% 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 162,861 shares of company stock worth $6,672,783 over the last quarter. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Equitable by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,258,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $822,351,000 after buying an additional 1,132,861 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Equitable by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,545,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $645,449,000 after buying an additional 2,532,791 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Equitable during the 4th quarter valued at $550,995,000. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Equitable by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,889,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $232,996,000 after purchasing an additional 22,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Equitable by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,822,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,812,000 after purchasing an additional 193,640 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

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.