Equitable Holdings, Inc. $EQH Shares Bought by Lazard Asset Management LLC

Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) by 25.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 902,568 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 181,990 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Equitable were worth $33,494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Troluce Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Equitable during the first quarter worth about $7,422,000. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp increased its position in Equitable by 23.2% in the 1st quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 14,842 shares of the company’s stock valued at $551,000 after acquiring an additional 2,797 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in Equitable during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,938,000. Oslo Pensjonsforsikring AS purchased a new stake in Equitable during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $142,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its position in Equitable by 124.1% during the 1st quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 22,123 shares of the company’s stock worth $821,000 after acquiring an additional 12,249 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.70% of the company’s stock.

Equitable Stock Performance

Shares of EQH stock opened at $49.38 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $13.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.93. Equitable Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.19 and a 12-month high of $55.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.75.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.02. Equitable had a positive return on equity of 232.29% and a negative net margin of 7.26%.The firm had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.35 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Equitable Holdings, Inc. will post 7.11 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 3rd will be issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Equitable’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -42.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equitable news, insider Nick Lane sold 4,417 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.45, for a total transaction of $187,501.65. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 124,218 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,273,054.10. The trade was a 3.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 39,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.54, for a total transaction of $1,927,038.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 753,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,570,181.62. This trade represents a 5.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 128,503 shares of company stock valued at $5,840,116 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EQH has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded Equitable from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Raymond James Financial set a $58.00 price target on Equitable and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Wolfe Research downgraded Equitable from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Evercore set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Equitable and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Equitable from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.08.

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.