MetLife Investment Management LLC Buys 800 Shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 28,603 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Equinix were worth $26,969,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Equinix in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,067,270,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Equinix by 28.7% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,804,227 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,701,188,000 after buying an additional 401,991 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Equinix during the 4th quarter valued at $328,899,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Equinix during the 4th quarter valued at $246,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Equinix by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,338,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,188,180,000 after acquiring an additional 203,656 shares during the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Equinix Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of Equinix stock opened at $790.15 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $847.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $897.53. Equinix, Inc. has a 52-week low of $684.14 and a 52-week high of $994.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.29 billion, a PE ratio of 92.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.95.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $7.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $5.17. Equinix had a return on equity of 6.31% and a net margin of 9.32%. On average, analysts anticipate that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a $4.69 dividend. This represents a $18.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.37%. This is an increase from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.26. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. Equinix’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 219.42%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on EQIX shares. Cfra Research raised shares of Equinix from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Equinix from $1,094.00 to $1,053.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 28th. Citizens Jmp raised Equinix to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Barclays raised their price target on Equinix from $822.00 to $834.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Moffett Nathanson raised shares of Equinix from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $1,005.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Christopher B. Paisley sold 125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $912.21, for a total transaction of $114,026.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,669 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,117,838.49. This represents a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Kurt Pletcher sold 215 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $929.73, for a total value of $199,891.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,157,513.85. This trade represents a 14.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,040 shares of company stock valued at $6,547,068. 0.27% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Equinix

Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure company . Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.