SG Americas Securities LLC Sells 803,861 Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH

SG Americas Securities LLC lessened its position in shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 89.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 90,015 shares of the company’s stock after selling 803,861 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Equitable were worth $3,340,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in Equitable by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $130,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in Equitable by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in Equitable by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 2,634 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equitable by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearstead Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equitable by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,235,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:EQH opened at $43.88 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.19 and a fifty-two week high of $56.53.

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

Equitable Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This is a positive change from Equitable’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. Equitable’s payout ratio is -42.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Equitable news, COO Jeffrey J. Hurd sold 14,358 shares of Equitable stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.44, for a total transaction of $609,353.52. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 79,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,369,863.32. The trade was a 15.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible 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 business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.63, for a total value of $1,652,711.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 789,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 216,919 shares of company stock worth $9,118,088 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Equitable from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Equitable from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Equitable from $59.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Evercore set a $63.00 price target on Equitable and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.64.

Equitable 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.