J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Makes New $223,000 Investment in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 900 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 65,620 shares in the last quarter. Veritas Asset Management LLP lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 657,999 shares in the last quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 178,224 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 246,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 43,104 shares in the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on EFX. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Equifax from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $305.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target 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. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $272.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $270.19.

Equifax Stock Performance

Shares of EFX stock opened at $226.24 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. Equifax Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.95 and a 52 week high of $275.10. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $255.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $232.42.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

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

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.