Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) Plans Dividend Increase – $4.69 Per Share

Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be paid a dividend of 4.69 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, March 19th. This represents a $18.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. This is a boost from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.26.

Equinix has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.1% annually over the last three years. Equinix has a dividend payout ratio of 114.1% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Equinix to earn $33.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $17.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.2%.

Equinix Price Performance

Shares of Equinix stock traded down $8.44 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $935.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 518,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 490,961. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $937.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $894.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. Equinix has a one year low of $684.14 and a one year high of $994.03.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $7.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $5.17. Equinix had a net margin of 12.29% and a return on equity of 8.34%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Equinix will post 31.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Equinix

In related news, EVP Raouf Abdel sold 1,331 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $903.71, for a total transaction of $1,202,838.01. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,579 shares in the company, valued at $5,945,508.09. This trade represents a 16.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Adaire Fox-Martin sold 1,370 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $909.51, for a total transaction of $1,246,028.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,329 shares in the company, valued at $3,937,268.79. This represents a 24.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,801 shares of company stock valued at $15,530,564 over the last 90 days. 0.27% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EQIX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Equinix from $995.00 to $1,080.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Equinix from $945.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Equinix from $810.00 to $822.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Equinix from $936.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $1,200.00 price target on shares of Equinix in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $996.06.

Equinix Company Profile

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.