Deutsche Bank AG Takes $1.84 Million Position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 41,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,840,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its position in Equitable by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $130,000 after buying an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in Equitable by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its holdings in shares of Equitable by 11.7% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 2,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG raised its stake in shares of Equitable by 1.5% in the first quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG now owns 19,109 shares of the company’s stock valued at $708,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional raised its stake in shares of Equitable by 30.2% in the second quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on EQH shares. UBS Group increased their price target on Equitable from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings lowered Equitable from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Equitable from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research upgraded Equitable from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Mizuho set a $68.00 price target on Equitable in a report on Thursday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.75.

Equitable Stock Performance

EQH stock opened at $50.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.15 and a quick ratio of 0.15. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $48.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.58. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.19 and a fifty-two week high of $55.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.69 billion, a PE ratio of -15.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.09.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.05. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 511.35% and a negative net margin of 8.72%.The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.84 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.10 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 29.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.18 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. Equitable’s payout ratio is currently -36.25%.

Insider Activity at Equitable

In other news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.54, for a total value of $1,927,038.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 753,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,570,181.62. This represents a 5.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bertram L. Scott sold 1,466 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.15, for a total value of $74,985.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 26,465 shares in the company, valued at $1,353,684.75. This represents a 5.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 114,541 shares of company stock worth $5,357,784. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.