EQH

Equitable Holdings screens as distressed on a surface read: FY2025 revenue fell 6.1% to $11.7B, the company swung to a net loss of $1.38B (diluted EPS -$4.83) after four straight profitable years (net income of $1.75B, $2.15B, $1.28B and $1.28B in FY2021-FY2024), and stockholders' equity is negative at -$74.0M. The derived ROE of 1864.9% and liabilities/equity of -4273x are mathematical artifacts of that tiny negative equity base and are not meaningful. For a large life insurer and annuity writer with $318B of total assets, GAAP net income is heavily distorted by market-risk-benefit (MRB) remeasurement and reinsurance restructuring rather than core earnings power.

The filing makes the source of the noise explicit. The Q1 2025 novation of legacy variable annuity policies produced a $499 million pre-tax loss, driven by a $2.0 billion reduction in the purchased MRB asset against a $1.6 billion reduction in the MRB liability. Separately, the RGA Reinsurance Transaction ceded a 75% quota share of in-force individual life and Closed Block business, materially reshaping the balance sheet. These are strategic de-risking moves that depress reported GAAP results in the year they occur, not evidence of an unprofitable franchise. Cash actually rose 78.9% to $12.5B and the company returned capital aggressively — $1.45B of buybacks (up 43.0%) and $314M of dividends — shrinking shares 8.9% to 280M.