Van ECK Associates Corp Acquires 206,037 Shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 15.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,572,846 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 206,037 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Equifax were worth $388,949,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its position in Equifax by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 2,022 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $500,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in Equifax by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,507 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $373,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Equifax by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 904 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $166,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its position in shares of Equifax by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 4,287 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $768,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 17,258 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $4,268,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on EFX. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Equifax from $276.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Equifax from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $210.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Equifax from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Equifax from $275.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equifax has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.19.

Equifax Stock Performance

Shares of EFX traded up $2.13 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $225.55. 600,048 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 865,698. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $254.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $233.64. The company has a market cap of $27.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.23, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.51. Equifax Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.95 and a twelve month high of $275.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Equifax had a net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 19.08%. Equifax’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.43 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.