MJP Associates Inc. ADV Makes New Investment in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

MJP Associates Inc. ADV bought a new position in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,137 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $281,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of EFX. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Equifax by 38.8% in the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 113,315 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,757,000 after purchasing an additional 31,686 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Equifax by 34.0% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 203,758 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $37,324,000 after acquiring an additional 51,693 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in Equifax by 243.0% during the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 11,181 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,048,000 after purchasing an additional 7,921 shares during the period. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Equifax during the 4th quarter worth $1,240,000. Finally, Creative Planning increased its stake in Equifax by 23.1% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 38,901 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,126,000 after purchasing an additional 7,296 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EFX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $164.00 to $300.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Oppenheimer started coverage on Equifax in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $273.00 target price on the stock. Redburn Atlantic downgraded Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $272.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Equifax from $195.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 29th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Equifax from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $264.22.

Equifax Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of Equifax stock traded up $5.12 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $267.52. The stock had a trading volume of 701,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 782,377. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. Equifax Inc. has a 1 year low of $159.95 and a 1 year high of $275.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.52. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $257.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $224.45.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The credit services provider reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.40% and a net margin of 10.36%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Equifax Inc. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.45%.

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.