Equitable (NYSE:EQH) COO Jeffrey Hurd Sells 14,358 Shares

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) COO Jeffrey Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.11, for a total value of $647,689.38. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 74,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,371,882.28. This represents a 16.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Equitable Stock Performance

EQH traded down $0.14 on Thursday, hitting $45.36. 3,918,582 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,916,487. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.19 and a 12-month high of $56.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $41.66 and a 200-day moving average of $43.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.77 billion, a PE ratio of -15.97, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.10.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The business had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. This is an increase from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio is presently -42.25%.

Institutional Trading of Equitable

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of EQH. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Equitable by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,258,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $822,351,000 after buying an additional 1,132,861 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position 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. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Equitable in the fourth quarter valued at about $550,995,000. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Equitable by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,889,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $232,996,000 after purchasing an additional 22,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Equitable by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,822,908 shares of the company’s stock valued at $229,812,000 after purchasing an additional 193,640 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EQH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equitable in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Equitable from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Equitable from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.64.

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.