Vanguard Group Inc. Lowers Position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH)

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in Equitable Holdings by selling 1,781,710 shares, now holding 33,855,824 shares, valued at approximately $1.76 billion or 11.14% of the company.
• CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of Equitable, leading to a 4.03% decrease in his position, with insiders collectively selling 135,666 shares worth over $7.1 million last quarter.
• Research analysts have set a consensus price target of $65.00 for Equitable, with a rating of "Moderate Buy" backed by multiple buy ratings from several firms.

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH - Free Report) by 5.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 33,855,824 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,781,710 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 11.14% of Equitable worth $1,763,550,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EQH. MV Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 111.2% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 678 shares of the company's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 154.3% in the 4th quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 1,386 shares of the company's stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 841 shares during the last quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the 1st quarter worth approximately $80,000. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the 1st quarter worth approximately $104,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on EQH shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Equitable from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Equitable from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Equitable from $69.00 to $64.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Equitable has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $65.00.

Equitable Stock Up 0.1%

NYSE:EQH traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $54.64. 2,266,485 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,806,153. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.16. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.99 and a fifty-two week high of $56.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.94. The company has a market capitalization of $16.37 billion, a PE ratio of 44.07 and a beta of 1.14.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 5th. Equitable's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 87.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equitable

In other Equitable news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.18, for a total transaction of $1,595,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 724,367 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,521,837.06. This trade represents a 3.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.09, for a total transaction of $212,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 19,827 shares in the company, valued at $1,052,615.43. The trade was a 16.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 94,000 shares of company stock worth $4,940,960 over the last three months. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Equitable

Equitable Holdings, Inc, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, operates as a diversified financial services company worldwide. The company operates through six segments: Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Investment Management and Research, Protection Solutions, Wealth Management, and Legacy.