Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Acquires 2,011 Shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its stake in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 24.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,292 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,011 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in Equifax were worth $2,495,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of EFX. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in Equifax by 11.8% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 2,033 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $493,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT purchased a new position in Equifax during the second quarter valued at $1,264,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Equifax by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 584,820 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $141,789,000 after buying an additional 81,966 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Equifax by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,276,798 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,036,952,000 after buying an additional 200,665 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 281,930 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $68,357,000 after acquiring an additional 19,438 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EFX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Equifax in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $275.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Equifax from $273.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Barclays boosted their target price on Equifax from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Citigroup raised their price target on Equifax from $263.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Equifax from $255.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Carla Chaney sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.85, for a total value of $845,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,875 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,065,118.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Equifax Stock Performance

Shares of EFX opened at $299.09 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.61, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Equifax Inc. has a one year low of $159.95 and a one year high of $309.63. The business has a fifty day moving average of $287.16 and a 200 day moving average of $259.10.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The credit services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.09. Equifax had a return on equity of 18.88% and a net margin of 10.67%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.71 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Equifax Inc. will post 7.33 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.74%.

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.