Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) Stock Position Lowered by B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG reduced its position in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 43,466 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 800 shares during the quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Equifax were worth $11,074,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in Equifax by 39.0% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 10,843 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,775,000 after purchasing an additional 3,043 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 2.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 184,890 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $54,329,000 after acquiring an additional 5,097 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equifax by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,585 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Equifax during the fourth quarter valued at $3,572,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Equifax by 95.9% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $412,239,000 after purchasing an additional 791,730 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on EFX. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Equifax from $284.00 to $281.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Argus downgraded shares of Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Equifax from $321.00 to $313.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised Equifax from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equifax has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.56.

Equifax Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE:EFX opened at $240.37 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $29.81 billion, a PE ratio of 49.77, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $263.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.75. Equifax Inc. has a 52-week low of $213.02 and a 52-week high of $309.63.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12. Equifax had a net margin of 10.63% and a return on equity of 19.13%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Equifax’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

Equifax 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.