Mizuho Issues Positive Forecast for Equitable (NYSE:EQH) Stock Price

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) had its target price raised by Mizuho from $61.00 to $62.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Mizuho’s price target points to a potential upside of 35.74% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on EQH. Zacks Research raised shares of Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Equitable from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equitable in a report on Friday, May 29th. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 target price on shares of Equitable and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Equitable has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.09.

Equitable Stock Performance

Equitable stock opened at $45.67 on Thursday. Equitable has a fifty-two week low of $35.19 and a fifty-two week high of $55.28. The company has a market capitalization of $12.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.08, a PEG ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $43.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.02. The business 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%.The business’s revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.35 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Equitable will post 7.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Equitable

In related news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 7,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.48, for a total value of $310,104.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $658,694.88. The trade was a 32.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 789,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,853,688.29. This trade represents a 4.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 154,248 shares of company stock worth $6,608,358. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Equitable in the fourth quarter valued at $550,995,000. Capital International Investors increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,532,791 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Equitable by 7,955.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,424,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,585,000 after purchasing an additional 2,394,721 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equitable by 114.8% in the 4th quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,294,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,640,000 after purchasing an additional 2,294,902 shares during the period. Finally, London Co. of Virginia lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 4,141.8% in the 3rd quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 1,235,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,726,000 after purchasing an additional 1,206,122 shares in the last quarter. 92.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.