Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,389,505 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 135,009 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 11.61% of Equifax worth $3,667,165,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Equifax by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 72,135 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $18,384,000 after acquiring an additional 7,343 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Equifax in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,794,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of Equifax by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 178,846 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $45,577,000 after purchasing an additional 10,713 shares during the period. Geo Capital Gestora de Recursos Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Equifax by 37.7% in the fourth quarter. Geo Capital Gestora de Recursos Ltd now owns 21,273 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,421,000 after purchasing an additional 5,820 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 46.4% in the fourth quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 11,748 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,994,000 after buying an additional 3,724 shares during the period. 96.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on EFX shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Equifax from $321.00 to $313.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Equifax from $286.00 to $279.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wolfe Research lowered Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Equifax from $320.00 to $316.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $298.56.

Equifax Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EFX opened at $245.27 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $252.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $264.90. Equifax Inc. has a 52-week low of $213.02 and a 52-week high of $309.63. The company has a market cap of $30.42 billion, a PE ratio of 50.78, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) 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, analysts anticipate that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.30%.

Equifax Company Profile

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.