Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc Invests $85,000 in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc acquired a new position in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 288 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $85,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of EFX. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equifax during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Equifax during the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Equifax by 76.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Mascoma Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Equifax during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Equifax by 138.2% during the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on EFX. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Equifax from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Equifax from $277.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “buy” rating on shares of Equifax in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Equifax from $300.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Equifax from $250.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equifax

In other Equifax news, EVP John J. Kelley III sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.92, for a total value of $272,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,075,535.48. The trade was a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,304 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total value of $15,770,648.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 109,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,532,909.67. This trade represents a 34.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Equifax Trading Down 5.4 %

EFX stock opened at $248.18 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $30.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.15, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.59. Equifax Inc. has a twelve month low of $197.13 and a twelve month high of $309.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The business has a fifty day moving average of $282.67 and a 200-day moving average of $266.90.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The credit services provider reported $1.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.76 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.29 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.67%.

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.