Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Buys 95,000 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC lifted its position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 126.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 170,000 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 95,000 shares during the quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in Equitable were worth $8,633,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Equitable in the third quarter valued at approximately $143,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in Equitable by 0.7% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 712,408 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,176,000 after buying an additional 5,090 shares during the last quarter. Sonoma Allocations LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equitable in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $215,000. Foster & Motley Inc. grew its holdings in Equitable by 1.0% during the third quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 183,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,310,000 after purchasing an additional 1,836 shares during the period. Finally, Lecap Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Equitable by 189.9% in the third quarter. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. now owns 51,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,594,000 after buying an additional 33,456 shares during the period. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Equitable Price Performance

EQH stock opened at $46.82 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $46.74 and a 200 day moving average of $50.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.87, a current ratio of 0.13 and a quick ratio of 0.13. The company has a market cap of $13.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.96 and a beta of 1.13. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $41.39 and a 1 year high of $56.61.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $1.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.65 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 107.71% and a negative net margin of 5.80%.Equitable’s quarterly revenue was down 52.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.33 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 24th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 24th. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -39.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EQH has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Equitable from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Equitable in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Equitable in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wolfe Research upgraded Equitable to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Equitable from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $62.62.

Insider Transactions at Equitable

In related news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 4,300 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.27, for a total value of $203,261.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,625 shares in the company, valued at $738,593.75. The trade was a 21.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 6,790 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.28, for a total value of $293,871.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 68,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,956,370.24. The trade was a 9.04% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 166,980 shares of company stock valued at $7,787,372. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.