Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH Shares Bought by Lecap Asset Management Ltd.

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 189.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 51,077 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 33,456 shares during the period. Equitable comprises about 0.9% of Lecap Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Lecap Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Equitable were worth $2,594,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQH. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Equitable by 18.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,985,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $223,168,000 after purchasing an additional 615,314 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. increased its stake in Equitable by 53.9% in the second quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 17,315 shares of the company’s stock valued at $971,000 after purchasing an additional 6,065 shares during the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Equitable during the second quarter worth about $817,000. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Equitable in the 2nd quarter worth about $434,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in Equitable by 3,555.3% in the 2nd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 21,932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,230,000 after buying an additional 21,332 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Equitable from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Equitable in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of Equitable in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research raised Equitable to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Equitable from $67.00 to $61.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and one has issued 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 $63.36.

Equitable Stock Down 2.1%

NYSE EQH opened at $47.74 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 0.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.87. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $41.39 and a fifty-two week high of $56.61. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $46.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $50.35. The stock has a market cap of $13.68 billion, a PE ratio of -17.30 and a beta of 1.13.

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

Equitable Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 24th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio is -39.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Nick Lane sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.87, for a total transaction of $1,436,100.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 119,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,742,389.46. This represents a 20.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 6,790 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at $2,956,370.24. This represents a 9.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 173,770 shares of company stock valued at $8,120,014. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Equitable Company Profile

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.