Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) Declares $0.39 Quarterly Dividend

Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.39 per share by the credit services provider on Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd.

Equifax has a dividend payout ratio of 16.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Equifax to earn $9.48 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.5%.

Equifax Price Performance

NYSE EFX opened at $271.21 on Friday. Equifax has a 12 month low of $180.31 and a 12 month high of $309.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.62 billion, a PE ratio of 60.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.59. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $286.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $265.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The credit services provider reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.84 by $0.01. Equifax had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 10.07%. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Equifax will post 7.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Equifax from $255.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Equifax from $263.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Equifax from $290.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Equifax from $250.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Equifax has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.47.

Insider Activity at Equifax

In other news, EVP John J. Kelley III sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.92, for a total transaction of $272,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,269 shares in the company, valued at $3,075,535.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Equifax news, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,304 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $15,770,648.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 109,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,532,909.67. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP John J. Kelley III sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.92, for a total value of $272,920.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,075,535.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.