Fifth Third Bancorp Buys 299 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH)

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 6.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,145 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 299 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Equitable were worth $268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQH. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Equitable during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $417,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Equitable by 446.1% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 37,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,783,000 after buying an additional 30,570 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new position in Equitable during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $499,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in Equitable by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 144,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,839,000 after buying an additional 2,205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Equitable by 82.7% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 1,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 817 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EQH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Equitable from $58.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Equitable from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group cut their target price on Equitable from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Equitable from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Equitable from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Equitable presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.67.

Equitable Stock Performance

EQH stock opened at $52.87 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $16.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.37 and a beta of 1.15. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.46 and a 1 year high of $56.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $51.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.86.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $4.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.05 billion. Equitable had a return on equity of 79.05% and a net margin of 8.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 105.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.43 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 9th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. This is an increase from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. Equitable’s payout ratio is 29.35%.

Insider Activity at Equitable

In related news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.18, for a total transaction of $1,595,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 724,367 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,521,837.06. The trade was a 3.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 6,666 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.57, for a total value of $317,101.62. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 101,646 shares in the company, valued at $4,835,300.22. This trade represents a 6.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 113,332 shares of company stock worth $5,781,400. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.