Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Sells 571,944 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lowered its stake in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 27.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,482,169 shares of the company’s stock after selling 571,944 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned approximately 0.46% of Equitable worth $60,561,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Equitable by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,012,452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,265,815,000 after acquiring an additional 446,752 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in Equitable by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 18,804,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $714,766,000 after acquiring an additional 637,916 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 1,161.7% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 7,849,706 shares of the company’s stock worth $262,692,000 after purchasing an additional 7,227,568 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,232,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $207,553,000 after purchasing an additional 18,475 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 15.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,083,650 shares of the company’s stock worth $166,855,000 after purchasing an additional 539,904 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Equitable in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $59.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. UBS Group lowered shares of Equitable from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Equitable from $41.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Equitable has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equitable news, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 9,969 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.09, for a total transaction of $429,564.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 111,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,806,775.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Equitable news, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 9,969 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.09, for a total transaction of $429,564.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 111,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,806,775.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.78, for a total transaction of $1,223,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 668,555 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,263,672.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 73,469 shares of company stock valued at $3,067,434 over the last three months. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Equitable Trading Down 0.8 %

EQH stock opened at $42.11 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $40.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.52. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.65 and a fifty-two week high of $44.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.06, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a current ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $13.70 billion, a PE ratio of 13.04 and a beta of 1.42.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. Equitable had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 87.49%. Equitable’s revenue for the quarter was up 47.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 6.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 6th. Equitable’s payout ratio is 29.72%.

About Equitable

Equitable Holdings, Inc, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, operates as a diversified financial services company worldwide. The company operates through six segments: Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Investment Management and Research, Protection Solutions, Wealth Management, and Legacy.