Equitable (NYSE:EQH) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of Equitable (NYSE:EQH) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on EQH. Mizuho set a $65.00 price target on shares of Equitable in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Equitable in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Equitable from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Equitable from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays set a $58.00 target price on Equitable in a report on Thursday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.54.

Equitable Trading Down 1.6%

EQH opened at $45.64 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.08 billion, a PE ratio of -16.54 and a beta of 1.13. Equitable has a one year low of $41.39 and a one year high of $56.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.87, a quick ratio of 0.13 and a current ratio of 0.13. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $46.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.65.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.59 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.65 billion. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 107.71% and a negative net margin of 5.80%.Equitable’s revenue was down 52.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.58 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Equitable will post 7.33 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 24th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 24th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -39.13%.

Insider Transactions at Equitable

In related news, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.14, for a total transaction of $1,712,658.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 676,540 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,185,935.60. The trade was a 5.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 4,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 21.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 203,770 shares of company stock valued at $9,462,206. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Equitable by 18.3% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,985,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $223,168,000 after buying an additional 615,314 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Equitable by 53.9% in the 2nd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 17,315 shares of the company’s stock valued at $971,000 after acquiring an additional 6,065 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Equitable during the 2nd quarter valued at $817,000. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Equitable during the 2nd quarter worth $434,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in Equitable by 3,555.3% during the 2nd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 21,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after purchasing an additional 21,332 shares during the period. 92.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.