AJOVista LLC Purchases New Shares in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

AJOVista LLC acquired a new position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 765 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $189,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Equifax in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. KB Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equifax during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Equifax in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Smithfield Trust Co boosted its stake in Equifax by 55.5% during the 3rd quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 199 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC acquired a new position in Equifax during the 4th quarter worth $49,000. 96.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EFX has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Equifax from $290.00 to $273.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Equifax from $275.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Equifax from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Equifax from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $210.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Equifax presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $270.19.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Rodolfo O. Ploder sold 14,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total transaction of $3,178,168.65. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 75,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,126,083.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Rodolfo O. Ploder sold 14,097 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total value of $3,178,168.65. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 75,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,126,083.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total transaction of $13,143,735.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 109,220 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,623,649. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Equifax Price Performance

Shares of EFX traded up $2.55 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $227.05. The stock had a trading volume of 730,987 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,140,132. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $250.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $234.48. Equifax Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.95 and a 52 week high of $275.10. The company has a market capitalization of $28.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.06. Equifax had a net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 19.08%. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.43 EPS. Equifax’s revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.74%.

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.