Eagle Ridge Investment Management Sells 75 Shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Eagle Ridge Investment Management trimmed its holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,753 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. Eagle Ridge Investment Management’s holdings in Equifax were worth $736,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in Equifax by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,838 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its position in Equifax by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 2,022 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $500,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in Equifax by 5.1% during the first quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 1,038 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in Equifax by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,507 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners increased its holdings in shares of Equifax by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 793 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $196,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Equifax from $276.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $305.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a report on Thursday, April 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Equifax from $290.00 to $273.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Equifax from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Equifax from $291.00 to $272.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equifax presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $270.19.

Equifax Stock Up 1.5 %

Equifax stock traded up $3.54 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $239.96. 539,433 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 837,666. Equifax Inc. has a one year low of $159.95 and a one year high of $275.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $236.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $246.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $29.66 billion, a PE ratio of 52.66, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.56.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 10.42%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 19th. Investors of record on Friday, May 24th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equifax news, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,300 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total transaction of $13,143,735.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 109,220 shares in the company, valued at $24,623,649. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Equifax news, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,300 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total value of $13,143,735.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 109,220 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,623,649. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Rodolfo O. Ploder sold 14,097 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total transaction of $3,178,168.65. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 75,964 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,126,083.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 83,635 shares of company stock valued at $18,969,282 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.66% 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.