Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec Invests $21.19 Million in Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Key Points

• Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec acquired 482,997 Equitable Holdings shares worth approximately $21.19 million, representing about 0.18% of the company. Institutional investors collectively own 92.70% of EQH.
• Analysts remain broadly positive, with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.75; several firms recently raised their targets to between $66 and $68.
• Equitable reported quarterly EPS of $1.70, beating estimates by $0.05, though revenue fell 29.8% year over year to $1.66 billion. The company also maintains a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share, yielding about 2.4%.

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec bought a new position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 482,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,194,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec owned approximately 0.18% of Equitable as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Equitable during the second quarter worth $1,136,305,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Equitable during the fourth quarter valued at about $550,995,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in shares of Equitable during the second quarter worth about $399,576,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equitable in the 2nd quarter worth about $244,052,000. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor bought a new position in Equitable in the 2nd quarter valued at about $208,146,000. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on EQH shares. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $66.00 price target on shares of Equitable in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Wolfe Research downgraded Equitable from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Barclays raised their target price on Equitable from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group upped their price target on Equitable from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Equitable from $62.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $61.75.

Equitable Stock Performance

Shares of EQH stock opened at $50.15 on Friday. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.19 and a 52-week high of $55.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 0.15. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.58. The company has a market capitalization of $13.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.15, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.09.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.05. Equitable had a negative net margin of 8.72% and a positive return on equity of 511.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.10 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 29.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors 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 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. Equitable's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -36.25%.

Insider Activity at Equitable

In other Equitable news, Director Charles G.T. Stonehill sold 7,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total value of $386,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 34,357 shares in the company, valued at $1,770,759.78. This represents a 17.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 947 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.88, for a total value of $50,077.36. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,419 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $445,196.72. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 114,541 shares of company stock valued at $5,357,784 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.00% 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.

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