Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) Shares Purchased by Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 15,818 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 486 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Equifax were worth $3,912,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Equifax by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 330,453 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $81,718,000 after purchasing an additional 8,668 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 62,249 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $15,394,000 after acquiring an additional 6,418 shares during the last quarter. Tobam boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. Tobam now owns 568 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $140,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equifax in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 38.8% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 113,315 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,757,000 after acquiring an additional 31,686 shares during the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on EFX shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Equifax from $275.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Equifax from $290.00 to $273.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Equifax from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $272.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Equifax from $276.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.19.

Equifax Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of EFX traded up $2.55 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $227.05. 730,987 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,140,132. The firm has a market cap of $28.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.54. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $250.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $234.11. Equifax Inc. has a 12-month low of $159.95 and a 12-month high of $275.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 19.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.43 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 23rd. Equifax’s payout ratio is currently 34.74%.

Insider Transactions at Equifax

In other news, EVP Rodolfo O. Ploder sold 14,097 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 75,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,126,083.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Rodolfo O. Ploder sold 14,097 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 75,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,126,083.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 directly owns 109,220 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,623,649. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Equifax 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.