Bank of New York Mellon Corp Trims Stake in Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Key Points

• Bank of New York Mellon cut its stake in Equitable Holdings by 17% in the first quarter, selling 500,976 shares and leaving it with 2.44 million shares valued at about $90.6 million.
• Equitable reported quarterly earnings and revenue that both beat analyst expectations, and the company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.30 per share from $0.27.
• Despite some mixed analyst calls, the stock currently carries a Moderate Buy consensus rating with an average price target of $60.08, above its recent trading price of $48.45.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH - Free Report) by 17.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,442,698 shares of the company's stock after selling 500,976 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.87% of Equitable worth $90,649,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Equitable in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equitable by 64.1% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 888 shares of the company's stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of Equitable by 124.7% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 728 shares of the company's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Equitable during the third quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Equitable by 92.6% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company's stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Equitable from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Equitable from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Equitable from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Equitable from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $60.08.

Equitable Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:EQH opened at $48.45 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $13.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $44.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.92. 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 Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.19 and a 12 month high of $55.24.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.35 earnings per share. Equitable's quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.13 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is an increase from Equitable's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Equitable's dividend payout ratio is -42.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bertram L. Scott sold 2,470 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.08, for a total transaction of $101,467.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 27,931 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,147,405.48. The trade was a 8.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.11, for a total value of $647,689.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 74,748 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,371,882.28. The trade was a 16.11% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 88,803 shares of company stock valued at $3,913,078. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.

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