Avestar Capital LLC Purchases Shares of 755 Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Avestar Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 755 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in EFX. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equifax in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 76.1% in the second quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Mascoma Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equifax in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Crewe Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 138.2% in the second quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Finally, First Community Trust NA acquired a new stake in shares of Equifax in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on EFX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Equifax from $304.00 to $283.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Equifax from $290.00 to $333.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Equifax from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Equifax from $250.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $306.74.

Equifax Trading Up 0.9 %

Equifax stock opened at $261.19 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $275.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $268.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. Equifax Inc. has a 12 month low of $209.68 and a 12 month high of $309.63. The stock has a market cap of $32.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 1.59.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The credit services provider reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.84 by $0.01. Equifax had a net margin of 10.07% and a return on equity of 18.56%. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.76 EPS. Equifax’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Equifax’s payout ratio is presently 34.67%.

Insider Activity at Equifax

In other Equifax news, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,304 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $15,770,648.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 109,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,532,909.67. The trade was a 34.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP John J. Kelley III sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.92, for a total transaction of $272,920.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,075,535.48. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 59,855 shares of company stock valued at $16,187,044. Insiders own 1.66% of the company’s stock.

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.