Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus on Equitable Holdings, with 10 buy ratings, one strong buy, two holds and one sell. The average 12-month price target is $61.75, above the reported $48.75 share price.
• Equitable reported quarterly EPS of $1.70, topping expectations of $1.65, although revenue fell 29.8% year over year to $1.66 billion. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share, representing a 2.5% annualized yield.
• Institutional investors own 92.7% of the stock, with several funds increasing their positions, while company insiders sold approximately $5.36 million worth of shares over the past 90 days.

Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH - Get Free Report) have been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the fourteen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $61.75.

EQH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research downgraded Equitable from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $66.00 target price on shares of Equitable in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho set a $68.00 price target on shares of Equitable in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Equitable from $62.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Equitable from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th.

Equitable Price Performance

Equitable stock opened at $48.75 on Friday. Equitable has a 52 week low of $35.19 and a 52 week high of $55.15. The company's 50 day moving average price is $47.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.39. The stock has a market cap of $13.31 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.84 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 511.35% and a negative net margin of 8.72%.Equitable's quarterly revenue was down 29.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Equitable will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. Equitable's dividend payout ratio is currently -36.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.54, for a total transaction of $1,927,038.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 753,403 shares in the company, valued at $36,570,181.62. This trade represents a 5.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 7,500 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total transaction of $386,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 34,357 shares in the company, valued at $1,770,759.78. This trade represents a 17.92% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 114,541 shares of company stock worth $5,357,784. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EQH. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Equitable by 92.6% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 424 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Equitable in the second quarter worth about $1,712,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new position in shares of Equitable in the second quarter worth about $1,133,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its position in shares of Equitable by 1,126.5% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 291,126 shares of the company's stock valued at $16,332,000 after purchasing an additional 267,389 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Equitable by 45.8% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 626,017 shares of the company's stock valued at $35,120,000 after purchasing an additional 196,729 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company's stock.

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.

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