Equifax (NYSE:EFX) Given New $272.00 Price Target at Oppenheimer

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) had its price target lowered by Oppenheimer from $291.00 to $272.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the credit services provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on EFX. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Equifax from an underperform rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Equifax from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $272.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Equifax from $276.00 to $241.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Equifax from $290.00 to $273.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Equifax has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $266.35.

Equifax Price Performance

EFX opened at $216.20 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $26.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.15, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $257.79 and a 200 day moving average of $231.21. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $159.95 and a fifty-two week high of $275.10.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.43 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Equifax will post 7.34 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Equifax during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Equifax in the third quarter worth $25,000. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Equifax in the second quarter worth $29,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Equifax in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 70.8% in the third quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 193 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. 96.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Equifax

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.