Geode Capital Management LLC Sells 25,616 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Key Points

• Geode Capital Management slightly reduced its Equitable Holdings stake by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 25,616 shares and ending with about 6.36 million shares valued at roughly $307.4 million.
• Equitable reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $1.62 versus $1.60 expected and revenue of $4.23 billion versus $3.95 billion forecast, though revenue still fell 7.6% year over year.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.30 from $0.27 and has an active $1 billion share repurchase authorization, while analysts currently rate the stock a “Moderate Buy” with a consensus target price of $58.18.

Geode Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH - Free Report) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,355,758 shares of the company's stock after selling 25,616 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned about 2.22% of Equitable worth $307,439,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of EQH. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Equitable by 92.6% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equitable in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,712,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL acquired a new stake in shares of Equitable in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,133,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its holdings 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 last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EQH has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Equitable from $66.00 to $58.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Equitable from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of Equitable in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Equitable currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $58.18.

Equitable Price Performance

NYSE:EQH opened at $40.60 on Tuesday. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $35.19 and a one year high of $56.61. The company has a market cap of $11.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.13. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $40.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.35. 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 - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.02. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. The firm had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.35 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This is an increase from Equitable's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 1st. Equitable's dividend payout ratio is presently -42.25%.

Equitable announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 11th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 7.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Equitable

In other news, insider Nick Lane sold 10,000 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.44, for a total value of $404,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 124,218 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,023,375.92. The trade was a 7.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.63, for a total transaction of $1,652,711.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 789,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $32,853,688.29. The trade was a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders have sold 154,191 shares of company stock valued at $6,311,969 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.10% 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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