Teacher Retirement System of Texas Raises Holdings in Equifax, Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in shares of Equifax, Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 1,464.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 18,119 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 16,961 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Equifax were worth $4,413,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Equifax in the fourth quarter valued at about $330,400,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 7,883,233.3% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 946,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $241,087,000 after acquiring an additional 945,988 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Equifax by 24,315.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 696,094 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $169,541,000 after purchasing an additional 693,243 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Equifax by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,027,817 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,281,340,000 after purchasing an additional 679,688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Equifax by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,228,741 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $313,213,000 after purchasing an additional 187,460 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EFX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Equifax from $306.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Equifax from $277.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $260.00 price target (down previously from $325.00) on shares of Equifax in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Equifax from $277.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $305.00 target price (up from $295.00) on shares of Equifax in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equifax presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $295.19.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP John W. Gamble, Jr. sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.10, for a total value of $518,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 65,176 shares in the company, valued at $16,887,101.60. The trade was a 2.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 22,160 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.61, for a total value of $5,686,477.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 142,395 shares in the company, valued at $36,539,980.95. This trade represents a 13.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Equifax Trading Up 1.0%

Equifax stock opened at $264.37 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $32.83 billion, a PE ratio of 54.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.60. Equifax, Inc. has a 12 month low of $199.98 and a 12 month high of $309.63. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $264.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $252.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The credit services provider reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Equifax had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 18.81%. Analysts anticipate that Equifax, Inc. will post 7.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Friday, May 23rd were issued a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Equifax’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.90%.

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.