Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) Short Interest Update

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,600,000 shares, a growth of 9.5% from the November 30th total of 4,200,000 shares. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,430,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Equitable Price Performance

Shares of EQH stock opened at $47.17 on Thursday. Equitable has a 52-week low of $31.76 and a 52-week high of $50.51. The stock has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a PE ratio of -43.27 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a current ratio of 0.12. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $47.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.45.

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53. Equitable had a negative net margin of 2.64% and a positive return on equity of 76.47%. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Equitable will post 6.05 EPS for the current year.

Equitable Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. Equitable’s payout ratio is presently -88.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equitable news, CAO William James Iv Eckert sold 1,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.68, for a total transaction of $79,356.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $825,162.36. This represents a 8.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Pearson sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.40, for a total transaction of $1,332,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 658,555 shares in the company, valued at $29,239,842. This represents a 4.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 130,032 shares of company stock valued at $6,031,759 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equitable

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in Equitable by 61.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 646 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Equitable by 5.1% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $288,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the period. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Equitable by 3.6% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 13,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $569,000 after purchasing an additional 476 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association raised its holdings in Equitable by 2.3% in the second quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 23,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $960,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in Equitable by 4.5% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 12,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $535,000 after purchasing an additional 548 shares during the period. 92.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on EQH shares. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Equitable from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Equitable from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $54.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Equitable from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.10.

About Equitable

Equitable Holdings, Inc, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, operates as a diversified financial services company worldwide. The company operates through six segments: Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Investment Management and Research, Protection Solutions, Wealth Management, and Legacy.