WINTON GROUP Ltd Buys Shares of 14,000 Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 14,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $667,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 124.7% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the period. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Equitable in the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Equitable by 92.6% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the period. Finally, Torren Management LLC acquired a new position in Equitable during the fourth quarter worth $81,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on EQH shares. Evercore set a $63.00 target price on shares of Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equitable in a report on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Equitable from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.18.

Insider Activity at Equitable

In other news, insider Nick Lane sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.44, for a total value of $404,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 124,218 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,023,375.92. This represents a 7.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.63, for a total transaction of $1,652,711.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 789,183 shares in the company, valued at $32,853,688.29. The trade was a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 162,861 shares of company stock valued at $6,672,783 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Stock Performance

Shares of EQH stock opened at $41.85 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $11.78 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $40.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.20. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $35.19 and a one year high of $56.61.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. Equitable had a negative net margin of 7.26% and a positive return on equity of 232.29%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.07 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. This is a boost from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Equitable’s payout ratio is currently -42.25%.

Equitable declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 11th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 7.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.