abrdn plc Boosts Holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

abrdn plc grew its holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 70.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 51,104 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,053 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in Equifax were worth $12,638,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Equifax by 2.7% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 2,505,338 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $458,928,000 after acquiring an additional 65,620 shares in the last quarter. Veritas Asset Management LLP raised its holdings in Equifax by 58.2% in the third quarter. Veritas Asset Management LLP now owns 1,788,875 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $327,686,000 after acquiring an additional 657,999 shares in the last quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Equifax by 11.3% in the third quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,749,202 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $320,419,000 after acquiring an additional 178,224 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Equifax by 22.0% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,366,809 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $250,372,000 after acquiring an additional 246,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Equifax by 3.4% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,328,767 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $243,404,000 after acquiring an additional 43,104 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on EFX shares. Evercore ISI raised shares of Equifax from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $210.00 to $310.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $272.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Equifax from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” 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 issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Equifax has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.19.

Equifax Stock Performance

NYSE:EFX opened at $226.24 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $255.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $232.42. Equifax Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.95 and a 1-year high of $275.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $27.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.51.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 19.08%. The business’s revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.43 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.36 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

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