Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) Stock Holdings Lowered by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lessened its position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,747,222 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 217,429 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 3.02% of Equifax worth $954,980,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Equifax in the 4th quarter worth approximately $330,400,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Equifax by 95.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 791,730 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Equifax in the fourth quarter worth $113,896,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Equifax by 34.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 863,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $251,480,000 after purchasing an additional 220,109 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,228,741 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $313,213,000 after purchasing an additional 187,460 shares in the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Equifax from $286.00 to $279.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Equifax from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Gordon Haskett raised Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equifax currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.56.

Equifax Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE EFX opened at $243.89 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $250.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $262.56. 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 twelve month low of $213.02 and a twelve month high of $309.63. The stock has a market cap of $30.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.50, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. Equities analysts anticipate that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s payout ratio is presently 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.