Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Purchases Shares of 2,000 Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE acquired a new position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 2,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $510,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Equifax by 39.0% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 10,843 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,775,000 after buying an additional 3,043 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 2.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 184,890 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $54,329,000 after acquiring an additional 5,097 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equifax by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,585 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Equifax during the fourth quarter valued at $3,572,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Equifax by 95.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $412,239,000 after purchasing an additional 791,730 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on EFX shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Equifax in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Equifax from $335.00 to $310.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Equifax currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.56.

Equifax Stock Down 1.4 %

EFX opened at $240.37 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Equifax Inc. has a twelve month low of $213.02 and a twelve month high of $309.63. The company has a market cap of $29.81 billion, a PE ratio of 49.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $251.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $263.86.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.12. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. Sell-side analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.30%.

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.