Ritholtz Wealth Management Decreases Stake in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH)

Ritholtz Wealth Management cut its position in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 2.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,231 shares of the company’s stock after selling 522 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Equitable were worth $1,031,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of EQH. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in Equitable in the first quarter valued at $28,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equitable during the 1st quarter worth about $45,000. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Equitable by 1,421.4% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 1,592 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Equitable by 26.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,939 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in Equitable by 261.3% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 1,641 shares during the last quarter. 92.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EQH. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Equitable from $44.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Equitable from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Equitable from $45.00 to $43.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Equitable from $48.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Equitable from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.09.

Equitable Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:EQH opened at $42.52 on Tuesday. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $24.65 and a 12-month high of $44.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.06. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.92. The firm has a market cap of $13.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.16 and a beta of 1.43.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Equitable had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 87.49%. The firm had revenue of $3.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.17 EPS. Equitable’s quarterly revenue was up 47.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 6.01 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 6th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.26%. Equitable’s payout ratio is currently 29.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equitable

In other news, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 9,969 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was 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 approximately $4,806,775.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 9,969 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 111,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,806,775.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.20, for a total transaction of $1,266,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 678,555 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,635,021. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 49,938 shares of company stock valued at $2,090,536. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.