South Dakota Investment Council Boosts Stock Position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

South Dakota Investment Council raised its holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 53.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,885 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,100 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Equifax were worth $2,197,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. KB Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equifax in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equifax in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Smithfield Trust Co raised its position in shares of Equifax by 55.5% in the 3rd quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 199 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equifax in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equifax in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. 96.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI raised Equifax from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $210.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Equifax from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Equifax from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Equifax from $276.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Equifax has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.19.

Equifax Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Equifax stock opened at $225.77 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market cap of $27.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $256.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $232.46. Equifax Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.95 and a fifty-two week high of $275.10.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.06. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 10.42%. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is 34.74%.

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.