Equifax (NYSE:EFX) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The credit services provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.06, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 10.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.43 earnings per share.

Equifax Stock Performance

Shares of Equifax stock traded down $1.31 during trading on Friday, hitting $216.20. 2,083,206 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 851,195. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Equifax has a 1 year low of $159.95 and a 1 year high of $275.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.15, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.51. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $257.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $231.21.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.74%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equifax

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EFX. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 105,549.9% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 38,813,671 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,543,825,000 after buying an additional 38,776,933 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 77.8% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,935,666 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,736,737,000 after buying an additional 3,910,202 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Equifax during the fourth quarter valued at $229,992,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 28.6% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,562,758 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $519,829,000 after buying an additional 569,794 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,226,424 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,015,808,000 after buying an additional 535,644 shares during the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EFX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic downgraded Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $272.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $305.00 target price on shares of Equifax in a report on Thursday. Bank of America decreased their target price on Equifax from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. TheStreet upgraded Equifax from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, December 29th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Equifax from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Equifax has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $266.35.

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.