Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) Shares Sold by Intech Investment Management LLC

Intech Investment Management LLC lessened its position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 17.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,673 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,188 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Equifax were worth $1,446,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Equifax by 1.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,816,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,415,284,000 after buying an additional 52,489 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Equifax by 37.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,233,744 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $950,268,000 after purchasing an additional 880,162 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Equifax by 1.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,885,661 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $845,041,000 after purchasing an additional 29,742 shares during the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC increased its position in Equifax by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,835,102 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $467,676,000 after purchasing an additional 9,702 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Equifax by 95.9% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $412,239,000 after purchasing an additional 791,730 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on shares of Equifax from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Equifax from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Equifax from $284.00 to $281.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Equifax from $320.00 to $316.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.56.

Equifax Price Performance

EFX opened at $244.06 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $252.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $265.78. The firm has a market cap of $30.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.53, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65. Equifax Inc. has a twelve month low of $213.02 and a twelve month high of $309.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

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

Equifax Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

About Equifax

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.