Brokerages Set Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Price Target at $58.18

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $58.1818.

EQH has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on Equitable and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price objective on Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Zacks Research downgraded Equitable from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised Equitable from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Equitable from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th.

Equitable Stock Performance

Shares of Equitable stock opened at $41.24 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $39.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.65. The company has a market capitalization of $11.61 billion, a PE ratio of -14.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75. Equitable has a 52 week low of $35.19 and a 52 week high of $56.61.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.Equitable’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.35 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Equitable will post 7.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable declared that its board 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 reacquire up to 7.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Equitable

In other news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.63, for a total transaction of $1,652,711.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 789,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,853,688.29. This represents a 4.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 7,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total value of $310,104.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,506 shares in the company, valued at $658,694.88. The trade was a 32.01% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 154,191 shares of company stock worth $6,311,969 over the last quarter. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equitable

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 180.7% during the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 32,820 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,667,000 after purchasing an additional 21,127 shares during the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 26.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd now owns 241,175 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,616,000 after purchasing an additional 50,455 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Equitable during the 3rd quarter worth $1,684,000. Korea Investment CORP lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 24.9% during the 3rd quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 299,391 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,203,000 after purchasing an additional 59,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Algebris UK Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 28.6% during the 3rd quarter. Algebris UK Ltd. now owns 712,460 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,151,000 after purchasing an additional 158,488 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.70% 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.