EQH Stock Rallies 24% in 3 Months: Buy, Hold or Book Profits?

Shares of Equitable Holdings, Inc. EQH have jumped 24.2% in the past three months, outperforming the industry’s 10%. A combination of merger-related repricing, strong operating results and aggressive capital returns worked in its favor. Healthy organic growth across businesses and rising assets supporting future fee income remain major tailwinds for the company.

Currently priced at $52.04, the stock is a little below its 52-week high of $55.15. This proximity to its 52-week high underscores investor confidence and market optimism about this multi-line insurance company’s prospects.

After such a sharp run-up, the key question is whether EQH still offers enough upside for investors or whether much of the good news is already reflected in the share price.

Reasons to Like EQH

The proposed all-stock combination with Corebridge Financial, Inc. CRBG is expected to be immediately accretive to EPS and cash generation, with 10%+ run-rate accretion by year-end 2028 and more than $500 million of anticipated synergies. The combination would create a retirement, life, wealth and asset-management company serving more than 12 million customers, with roughly $1.5 trillion of assets under management and administration. A broader mix of fee, spread and underwriting income should also make earnings more resilient across market cycles.

EQH recorded positive second-quarter 2026 flows across each major operation: $1.7 billion in Retirement, $2 billion in Wealth Management and around $800 million at AllianceBernstein. Retirement first-year premiums also increased 13%, suggesting underlying business momentum remains healthy.

Total assets under management and administration increased 10% year over year to $1.18 trillion, reaching a record level as positive flows combined with favorable markets. Continued asset growth should support management and advisory fee revenues, particularly through AllianceBernstein and Equitable Holdings’ wealth platform.

EQH returned $449 million through dividends and repurchases in the second quarter alone and is targeting $1.8 billion of cash generation in 2026. Its 60-70% payout target provides scope for continued dividends and buybacks, while regulatory capital remains comfortably above management's target.

Estimates for EQH & Surprise History

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings for Equitable Holdings is currently pegged at $7.18 per share, indicating 15.6% year-over-year growth. The consensus mark for next year suggests a further 23.9% jump. It beat earnings estimates in three of the past four quarters and missed once. This is depicted in the figure below.

Equitable Holdings, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Equitable Holdings, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Equitable Holdings, Inc. Quote

The consensus estimate for 2025 and 2026 revenues is pegged at $15.6 billion and $17.3 billion, respectively, signaling 3.6% and 10.9% year-over-year growth.

Key Risks for EQH

There are a few factors that investors should keep an eye on.

EQH has sizable variable-annuity products with guaranteed benefits. Sharp equity moves, changing interest rates or unfavorable policyholder behavior can increase guarantee liabilities and make hedging less effective than expected.

AllianceBernstein faces the secular migration toward low-cost passive products. Competitive fee pressure and weak relative investment performance could constrain AUM growth and margins over time. Although AllianceBernstein generated $800 million of inflows in the second quarter, it suffered $7.1 billion of net outflows in the first quarter, primarily from active equities. Such quarter-to-quarter swings underline the potential volatility of asset-management earnings.

Valuation has also become less compelling after the recent rally. EQH trades at 6.22X forward earnings, above its five-year median of 5.43X. The premium indicates that investors are already assigning value to stronger operating trends and the expected benefits of the Corebridge transaction.

How to Play EQH Stock Now?

Equitable Holdings’ business momentum, asset growth, strong capital returns and expected benefits from the Corebridge merger support its long-term prospects. However, merger execution risks, volatile asset-management flows and a less attractive valuation temper near-term upside. Investors may therefore prefer to hold the stock, which carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Finance space are CNO Financial Group, Inc. CNO and Assurant, Inc. AIZ, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The consensus mark for CNO Financial’s current-year earnings is pegged at $4.74 per share, which indicates 16.2% year-over-year growth. It has witnessed two upward estimate revisions against none in the opposite direction in the past 60 days. CNO beat earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, with an average surprise of 23.2%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Assurant’s current-year earnings is pegged at $22.07 per share, which indicates 11.6% year-over-year growth. It has witnessed two upward estimate revisions against none in the opposite direction in the past month. AIZ beat earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, with an average surprise of 17.7%.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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