Equitable (NYSE:EQH) COO Sells $609,353.52 in Stock

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) COO Jeffrey Hurd sold 14,358 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.44, for a total transaction of $609,353.52. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 79,403 shares in the company, valued at $3,369,863.32. The trade was a 15.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Equitable Stock Up 0.4%

EQH traded up $0.17 on Monday, reaching $42.75. 4,271,419 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,709,213. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $39.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.73. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.19 and a 52-week high of $56.61. The company has a market cap of $12.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.05, a PEG ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.13. 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 (NYSE:EQH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. The firm had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.35 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equitable declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 11th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 7.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Equitable

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQH. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Equitable in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $550,995,000. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 49.5% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,012,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $559,232,000 after buying an additional 3,645,301 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 7,955.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,424,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,585,000 after buying an additional 2,394,721 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 114.8% in the fourth quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,294,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,640,000 after buying an additional 2,294,902 shares during the last quarter. Finally, London Co. of Virginia lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 4,141.8% in the third quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 1,235,243 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,726,000 after buying an additional 1,206,122 shares during the last quarter. 92.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on EQH. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Equitable from $66.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Equitable from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Equitable has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.18.

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.