Thornburg Investment Management Inc. Purchases 22,087 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,889,730 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,087 shares during the quarter. Equitable comprises about 2.9% of Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Equitable were worth $232,996,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Equitable by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $130,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Equitable by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,882 shares of the company’s stock worth $137,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearstead Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Equitable by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,235,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares in the last quarter. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Equitable Trading Up 0.2%

EQH opened at $44.11 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.42 billion, a PE ratio of -15.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $41.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.19 and a 12-month high of $56.61.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This is a positive change from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Equitable’s payout ratio is presently -42.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Equitable news, Director Bertram L. Scott sold 2,470 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.08, for a total transaction of $101,467.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 27,931 shares in the company, valued at $1,147,405.48. The trade was a 8.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 6,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.83, for a total transaction of $259,346.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 9,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $391,779.78. The trade was a 39.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 162,861 shares of company stock valued at $6,672,783 over the last quarter. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on EQH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Equitable from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. 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. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Equitable from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Equitable from $59.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equitable in a report on Friday, May 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus 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.