Equifax (NYSE:EFX) Lowered to Hold Rating by Argus

Argus downgraded shares of Equifax (NYSE:EFX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on EFX. Barclays reduced their target price on Equifax from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Equifax from $286.00 to $279.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Equifax in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Equifax from $321.00 to $313.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equifax has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $301.69.

Equifax Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EFX opened at $253.16 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $260.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $274.69. Equifax has a 52 week low of $213.02 and a 52 week high of $309.63. The stock has a market cap of $31.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.41, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.58.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.12. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Equifax will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.30%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equifax

In other Equifax news, EVP Lisa M. Nelson sold 551 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.39, for a total value of $143,474.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,697 shares in the company, valued at $3,045,781.83. The trade was a 4.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Equifax

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Equifax by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,389,505 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,667,165,000 after acquiring an additional 135,009 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Equifax by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,816,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,415,284,000 after purchasing an additional 52,489 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in Equifax by 37.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,233,744 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $950,268,000 after purchasing an additional 880,162 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 1.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,885,661 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $845,041,000 after purchasing an additional 29,742 shares during the period. Finally, Cantillon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equifax by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,835,102 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $467,676,000 after buying an additional 9,702 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

About Equifax

Equifax Inc operates as a data, analytics, and technology company. The company operates through three segments: Workforce Solutions, U.S. Information Solutions (USIS), and International. The Workforce Solutions segment offers services that enables customers to verify income, employment, educational history, criminal justice data, healthcare professional licensure, and sanctions of people in the United States; and employer customers with services that assist them in complying with and automating payroll-related and human resource management processes throughout the entire cycle of the employment relationship.