Equitable Holdings, Inc. (EQH) Stock Price & How to Invest

Equitable Holdings runs three connected businesses. Retirement is the biggest: individual and group annuities and retirement products, about $189 billion of assets at mid-2026, sold heavily through Equitable Advisors, a network of roughly 4,600 licensed financial professionals that also feeds a $141 billion wealth management arm. Asset Management is its roughly 68% ownership of AllianceBernstein, the active manager that ended the second quarter of 2026 with $905 billion of assets under management and a $91 billion private markets platform that Equitable itself has seeded with $25 billion of general account capital. What used to be a large life insurance operation is now mostly ceded: in July 2025 Equitable closed a deal with RGA reinsuring 75% of its in-force individual life block, about $18 billion of general account and $14 billion of separate account reserves, which released over $2 billion of value and pushed the company further toward fee and spread income. The business traces back to 1859 and reached public markets through AXA's 2018 IPO.

The investment picture has two layers. Underneath is a fee-and-spread machine that produced $488 million of non-GAAP operating earnings in the second quarter of 2026, or $1.70 per share, with net inflows in all three segments and a 60% to 70% capital return payout target funded by roughly $1.8 billion of targeted annual cash generation. On top of it sits the Corebridge merger, approved by both shareholder bases on July 30, 2026 and expected to close by year-end. Corebridge shareholders take about 51% of a new parent company and Equitable shareholders about 49%, Corebridge is the accounting acquirer, and the combined company keeps the Equitable name and the EQH ticker while moving its headquarters to Houston. Reported results are messy in a way that scares off screeners: hedges on annuity guarantees run through GAAP income, so the same quarter that earned $488 million operating showed a $453 million net loss, and book value including AOCI is negative.

The merger is the near-term binary. It still needs regulatory approvals, and a delay or a broken deal would leave a standalone company whose plan, cost base and per-share math have already been rebuilt around the combination, while integrating two large insurers and migrating over $100 billion of assets to AllianceBernstein are multi-year jobs that frequently run late. The underlying business is market-sensitive by construction: fee income tracks equity levels, the general account carries credit and private credit exposure, and hedges on annuity guarantees produce GAAP swings large enough to turn a profitable quarter into a reported net loss and to leave book value including AOCI below zero. Concentration cuts both ways, since RGA now reinsures 75% of the in-force individual life block and a meaningful slice of earnings comes from a stake in AllianceBernstein rather than a wholly owned business. One mechanical point that trips people up: at close each EQH share becomes 1.55516 new shares, so the quoted price, earnings per share and dividend per share all rebase even though the ticker does not change.

11 analysts publish price targets on EQH, averaging $61.55 against a $51.87 price as of August 2026, or +18.7%. The published targets run from $52.00 to $68.00, a narrow spread, and the ratings split 11 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 11 raises and 1 cut among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full EQH forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Equitable Holdings, Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. The Corebridge merger and the new parent company. Both shareholder bases approved the all-stock combination on July 30, 2026, and management still guides to a close by year-end subject to regulatory approvals. The most optimistic published target, $68.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The merger is the near-term binary. The most pessimistic target, $52.00, is roughly what EQH is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on EQH, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Equitable Holdings, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Share price / market cap: ~$51.87, ~$14.1B
• Revenue (TTM): ~$10.6B
• Non-GAAP operating EPS (Q2 2026): ~$1.70 (~$1.75 ex-notable items, up ~24% y/y)
• GAAP result (Q2 2026): net loss of ~$453M, or ~$1.68 per share
• Book value per share: ~$16.89 ex-AOCI (~$30.92 with AB at market value; ~-$6.79 including AOCI)
• Dividend: ~$0.30 per quarter, ~$1.20 annualized, ~2.3% yield

At about $51.87 the stock sits near seven to eight times its second quarter operating earnings annualized, the kind of multiple annuity writers usually carry because their GAAP results swing with hedging rather than with the business. The gap between $488 million of operating profit and a $453 million net loss is almost entirely non-economic, driven by fair value changes in market risk benefits and the derivatives used to hedge them. Assets under management and administration hit a record $1.175 trillion, up 10% year over year. Every per-share figure here is pre-merger: at close each share converts into 1.55516 shares of the new parent, so price and EPS both rebase.

Other names that sit close to EQH: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get EQH exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so EQH sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where EQH fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

EQH is a scaled retirement, wealth and asset management franchise trading at a single-digit multiple of its operating earnings, with a year-end merger that rewrites both the share count and the story.

Whether EQH is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is EQH a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the EQH stock forecast.

For income investors, whether EQH pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does EQH pay a dividend? And to weigh EQH against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: EQH vs JXN and EQH vs LNC.