K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc Acquires New Shares in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc acquired a new stake in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,860 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $460,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EFX. Veritas Asset Management LLP raised its position in Equifax by 58.2% in the third quarter. Veritas Asset Management LLP now owns 1,788,875 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $327,686,000 after purchasing an additional 657,999 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC raised its position in Equifax by 269.7% in the third quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 552,683 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $101,240,000 after purchasing an additional 403,208 shares during the period. Kensico Capital Management Corp raised its position in Equifax by 108.2% in the third quarter. Kensico Capital Management Corp now owns 740,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $135,553,000 after purchasing an additional 384,600 shares during the period. Intermede Investment Partners Ltd raised its position in Equifax by 55.6% in the third quarter. Intermede Investment Partners Ltd now owns 810,768 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $148,516,000 after purchasing an additional 289,875 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Equifax by 22.0% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,366,809 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $250,372,000 after purchasing an additional 246,390 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on EFX. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Equifax from $275.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Equifax from $290.00 to $273.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Equifax from $276.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Equifax currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.19.

Equifax Stock Performance

NYSE EFX traded down $2.86 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $223.42. The company had a trading volume of 880,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,073,531. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.73. Equifax Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.95 and a 1-year high of $275.10. The company has a market cap of $27.62 billion, a PE ratio of 49.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.51. The business has a 50 day moving average of $254.71 and a 200-day moving average of $232.68.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.06. Equifax had a net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 19.08%. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.43 earnings per share. Equifax’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.36 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.74%.

Equifax 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.