Avanza Fonder AB Decreases Holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Avanza Fonder AB lowered its stake in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 10.7% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,197 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 860 shares during the period. Avanza Fonder AB’s holdings in Equifax were worth $1,782,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of EFX. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Equifax in the 4th quarter valued at about $330,400,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Equifax by 7,883,233.3% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 946,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $241,087,000 after buying an additional 945,988 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Equifax by 95.9% in 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 buying an additional 791,730 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 24,315.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 696,094 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $169,541,000 after acquiring an additional 693,243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Equifax by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,027,817 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,281,340,000 after acquiring an additional 679,688 shares during the period. 96.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on EFX. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Equifax from $288.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Equifax from $277.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Equifax presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $293.75.

Equifax Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE:EFX opened at $271.63 on Thursday. Equifax Inc. has a 12-month low of $199.98 and a 12-month high of $309.63. The firm has a market cap of $33.74 billion, a PE ratio of 56.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $252.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $253.36.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The credit services provider reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.08. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 23rd. This is a boost from Equifax’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Equifax’s payout ratio is 40.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equifax

In other news, EVP John W. Gamble, Jr. sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.10, for a total transaction of $518,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 65,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,887,101.60. This represents a 2.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 22,160 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.61, for a total value of $5,686,477.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 142,395 shares in the company, valued at $36,539,980.95. This trade represents a 13.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.