D.A. Davidson & CO. Acquires 2,900 Shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its stake in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 260.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,014 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,900 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Equifax were worth $1,023,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC raised its stake in Equifax by 37.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,233,744 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $950,268,000 after purchasing an additional 880,162 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Equifax by 95.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $412,239,000 after purchasing an additional 791,730 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Equifax by 34.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 863,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $251,480,000 after purchasing an additional 220,109 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Equifax by 13.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 767,136 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $225,431,000 after buying an additional 88,895 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Equifax by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,816,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,415,284,000 after acquiring an additional 52,489 shares during the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on EFX. Wolfe Research cut shares of Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of Equifax from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Gordon Haskett raised Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Equifax from $284.00 to $281.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $301.13.

Insider Activity at Equifax

In related news, EVP Lisa M. Nelson sold 551 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.39, for a total transaction of $143,474.89. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,045,781.83. This represents a 4.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Equifax Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE EFX opened at $238.04 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $258.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $272.86. Equifax Inc. has a one year low of $213.02 and a one year high of $309.63. The company has a market capitalization of $29.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12. Equifax had a net margin of 10.63% and a return on equity of 19.13%. Equities analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

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.