Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt Purchases 26,100 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Key Points

• Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its stake in Equitable Holdings by 9.8% in Q1, buying 26,100 shares to bring its total to 291,100 shares worth about $10.8 million.
• Institutional ownership in Equitable remains high, with several large funds also adding shares and 92.7% of the stock owned by institutions.
• Equitable recently reported earnings and raised its dividend: it beat EPS estimates, topped revenue expectations, and increased its quarterly payout to $0.30 per share from $0.27.

Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its holdings in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH - Free Report) by 9.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 291,100 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 26,100 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt owned 0.10% of Equitable worth $10,800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Equitable by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,258,124 shares of the company's stock valued at $822,351,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132,861 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Equitable by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,545,628 shares of the company's stock worth $645,449,000 after purchasing an additional 2,532,791 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Equitable during the fourth quarter worth about $550,995,000. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Equitable by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,889,730 shares of the company's stock valued at $232,996,000 after purchasing an additional 22,087 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Equitable by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,822,908 shares of the company's stock valued at $229,812,000 after purchasing an additional 193,640 shares during the period. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on EQH. Wolfe Research downgraded Equitable from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of Equitable in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of Equitable from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Evercore set a $63.00 target price on shares of Equitable and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Equitable from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $60.08.

Insider Transactions at Equitable

In related news, Director Bertram L. Scott sold 2,470 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.08, for a total value of $101,467.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 27,931 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,147,405.48. This trade represents a 8.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 6,200 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.83, for a total value of $259,346.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,366 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $391,779.78. This represents a 39.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 128,503 shares of company stock worth $5,565,789. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Equitable Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of EQH opened at $47.27 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.10. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.19 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $43.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.90. 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 posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.95 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.35 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a $0.30 dividend. 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, June 1st. This is an increase from Equitable's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Equitable's dividend payout ratio is -42.25%.

Equitable 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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