Equifax (NYSE:EFX) Shares Gap Down to $237.68

Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) shares gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $237.68, but opened at $215.63. Equifax shares last traded at $219.92, with a volume of 453,417 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EFX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. 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. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $305.00 target price on shares of Equifax in a research note on Friday, February 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Equifax from $195.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 29th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $267.00.

Equifax Stock Down 6.8 %

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $259.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $231.05. The stock has a market cap of $27.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Equifax had a net margin of 10.36% and a return on equity of 19.40%. The business’s revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.53 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.45%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equifax

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Equifax by 105,549.9% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 38,813,671 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,543,825,000 after buying an additional 38,776,933 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Equifax by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,895,487 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,436,215,000 after buying an additional 204,481 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Equifax by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,703,228 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,695,000 after buying an additional 40,642 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Equifax by 77.8% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,935,666 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,736,737,000 after buying an additional 3,910,202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Equifax by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,784,076 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,781,762,000 after buying an additional 331,355 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

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.