Heritage Trust Co Takes $888,000 Position in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

Heritage Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 942 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $888,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Equinix by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,664,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,941,418,000 after acquiring an additional 88,654 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Equinix by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,412,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,269,037,000 after purchasing an additional 62,005 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Equinix by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,264,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,135,606,000 after purchasing an additional 81,144 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Equinix by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,938,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,827,847,000 after purchasing an additional 44,471 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Equinix by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,804,227 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,701,188,000 after purchasing an additional 401,991 shares in the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on EQIX shares. Truist Financial cut their target price on Equinix from $1,028.00 to $990.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Moffett Nathanson upgraded Equinix from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $1,200.00 target price on shares of Equinix in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Equinix from $950.00 to $975.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Cfra Research upgraded shares of Equinix from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Equinix has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,007.59.

Equinix Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EQIX opened at $776.83 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $75.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $863.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $900.92. Equinix, Inc. has a 52-week low of $684.14 and a 52-week high of $994.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $7.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $5.17. Equinix had a net margin of 9.32% and a return on equity of 6.31%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a $4.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This is an increase from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.26. This represents a $18.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.41%. Equinix’s payout ratio is 219.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Charles J. Meyers sold 5,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $909.81, for a total transaction of $5,265,980.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 15,233 shares in the company, valued at $13,859,135.73. This represents a 27.53 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kurt Pletcher sold 341 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $903.72, for a total value of $308,168.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,430 shares in the company, valued at $1,292,319.60. The trade was a 19.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,054 shares of company stock valued at $17,466,950 in the last quarter. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Equinix Profile

Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure company . Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.