Sei Investments Co. Grows Position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 6.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 178,846 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,713 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Equifax were worth $45,577,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in EFX. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Equifax by 37.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,233,744 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $950,268,000 after purchasing an additional 880,162 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Equifax by 95.9% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $412,239,000 after buying an additional 791,730 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Equifax in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $113,896,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Equifax by 34.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 863,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $251,480,000 after acquiring an additional 220,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Equifax by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,228,741 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $313,213,000 after acquiring an additional 187,460 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Equifax from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of Equifax from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Equifax from $320.00 to $316.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $298.56.

Equifax Price Performance

Shares of Equifax stock opened at $245.27 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $252.91 and a 200 day moving average of $264.90. Equifax Inc. has a 52 week low of $213.02 and a 52 week high of $309.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The company has a market cap of $30.42 billion, a PE ratio of 50.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.12. Equifax had a net margin of 10.63% and a return on equity of 19.13%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s payout ratio is presently 32.30%.

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.