New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Acquires New Position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board acquired a new position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 65,500 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,181,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Equitable by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,143,567 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,240,838,000 after acquiring an additional 854,689 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Equitable by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 33,444,638 shares of the company's stock valued at $849,159,000 after purchasing an additional 1,223,193 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its position in Equitable by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 26,902,560 shares of the company's stock valued at $763,764,000 after purchasing an additional 2,450,484 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Equitable during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $553,559,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Equitable by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,933,563 shares of the company's stock valued at $252,213,000 after purchasing an additional 336,694 shares during the last quarter. 92.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equitable

In other Equitable news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.07, for a total transaction of $1,984,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 639,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,152,398.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 60,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.07, for a total value of $1,984,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 639,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,152,398.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nick Lane sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.29, for a total value of $322,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 154,132 shares in the company, valued at $4,976,922.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 241,938 shares of company stock worth $8,067,472. Insiders own 1.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on EQH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Equitable from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price target for the company from $35.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Equitable from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Equitable from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and set a $34.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, December 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Equitable from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $35.89.

Equitable Price Performance

EQH stock traded down $0.57 on Monday, reaching $37.44. 1,689,633 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,691,684. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $21.89 and a one year high of $38.32. The company has a market cap of $12.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.08 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.47.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $3.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.50 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 6.03 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 26th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 23rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.35%. Equitable's dividend payout ratio is 26.04%.

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.