Equifax (NYSE:EFX) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.06, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.40% and a net margin of 10.36%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.43 EPS.

Equifax Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:EFX opened at $237.68 on Thursday. Equifax has a 12-month low of $159.95 and a 12-month high of $275.10. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $259.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $231.05. The company has a market capitalization of $29.53 billion, a PE ratio of 54.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on EFX. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Equifax from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Bank of America raised Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI raised Equifax from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $210.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $305.00 price target on shares of Equifax in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $267.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EFX. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Equifax by 105,549.9% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 38,813,671 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,543,825,000 after acquiring an additional 38,776,933 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Equifax by 77.8% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,935,666 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,736,737,000 after acquiring an additional 3,910,202 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Equifax in the 4th quarter valued at $229,992,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Equifax by 28.6% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,562,758 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $519,829,000 after acquiring an additional 569,794 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Equifax by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,226,424 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,015,808,000 after buying an additional 535,644 shares during the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.