Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Raises Holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 73.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,693 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,414 shares during the quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Equifax were worth $1,673,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Conning Inc. raised its stake in Equifax by 4.7% in the second quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 848 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $206,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Equifax by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 3,726 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $903,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Equifax by 13.5% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 371 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $109,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in Equifax by 3.0% in the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,665 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $489,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Equifax by 3.7% in the third quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 1,474 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EFX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Equifax from $304.00 to $283.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Equifax in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $360.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley raised Equifax from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $275.00 to $320.00 in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas raised Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Equifax from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $311.67.

Equifax Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Equifax stock opened at $265.95 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $32.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.57. Equifax Inc. has a 52-week low of $213.02 and a 52-week high of $309.63. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $267.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $269.78.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The credit services provider reported $1.85 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.76 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Equifax Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.67%.

Insider Activity

In other Equifax news, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,304 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $15,770,648.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 109,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,532,909.67. This trade represents a 34.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Lisa M. Nelson sold 551 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.39, for a total transaction of $143,474.89. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,697 shares in the company, valued at $3,045,781.83. This represents a 4.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 59,855 shares of company stock worth $16,187,044. Company insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

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.