Welch & Forbes LLC Acquires 615 Shares of Equinix, Inc. $EQIX

Welch & Forbes LLC lifted its stake in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 2.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 25,794 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 615 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Equinix were worth $25,284,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of EQIX. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Equinix by 28.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 326 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its position in Equinix by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $425,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in Equinix by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 3,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,487,000 after acquiring an additional 546 shares during the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. bought a new stake in Equinix in the 2nd quarter worth $231,000. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in shares of Equinix by 2.8% in the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,074 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $854,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on EQIX. Wall Street Zen raised Equinix from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Equinix from $975.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Equinix from $894.00 to $1,015.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Equinix from $1,123.00 to $1,143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Equinix from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Equinix has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,155.64.

Equinix Stock Up 1.6%

EQIX stock traded up $16.34 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $1,051.21. The stock had a trading volume of 330,001 shares, compared to its average volume of 635,703. The business has a 50-day moving average of $1,066.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $967.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market cap of $103.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.98. Equinix, Inc. has a 52-week low of $720.62 and a 52-week high of $1,128.68.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $10.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.30 by $6.49. The business had revenue of $2.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. Equinix had a return on equity of 10.03% and a net margin of 15.07%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $9.67 earnings per share. Equinix has set its FY 2026 guidance at 42.310-43.110 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Equinix, Inc. will post 38.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $5.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $20.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Equinix’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 142.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equinix

In other Equinix news, Director Christopher B. Paisley sold 125 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,060.29, for a total transaction of $132,536.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 17,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,615,511.53. The trade was a 0.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Raouf Abdel sold 2,040 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,083.47, for a total value of $2,210,278.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 5,728 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,206,116.16. This represents a 26.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 11,115 shares of company stock valued at $12,022,574 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Equinix Profile

Equinix, Inc is a global provider of digital infrastructure and interconnection services, specializing in carrier-neutral data centers and colocation. The company operates a platform that enables enterprises, cloud and network service providers, and content companies to colocate IT infrastructure, interconnect directly with partners and providers, and access cloud on-ramps and network services in a secure, low-latency environment.

Equinix’s offerings include traditional colocation space and power, cross-connects and meet-me rooms, and a suite of connectivity and on-demand services designed for hybrid multicloud architectures.