Bank of Nova Scotia Sells 24,579 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Bank of Nova Scotia decreased its holdings in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 54.6% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 20,428 shares of the company’s stock after selling 24,579 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in Equitable were worth $758,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in EQH. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Equitable in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Equitable by 64.1% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of Equitable by 124.7% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in Equitable during the third quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Equitable by 92.6% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equitable

In other Equitable news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.54, for a total value of $1,927,038.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 753,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,570,181.62. The trade was a 5.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 6,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.83, for a total transaction of $259,346.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $391,779.78. The trade was a 39.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 128,503 shares of company stock valued at $5,840,116 in the last three months. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Equitable Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of NYSE:EQH opened at $48.43 on Thursday. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.19 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The company has a market capitalization of $13.22 billion, a PE ratio of -17.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $44.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.93. 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 released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.35 EPS. Analysts forecast that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 3rd. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -42.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EQH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on Equitable from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Equitable from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price target on shares of Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.08.

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.