Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Acquires 214 Shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 11.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,033 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 214 shares during the quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Equifax were worth $493,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in EFX. Conning Inc. boosted its holdings in Equifax by 4.7% in the second quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 848 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $206,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Thompson Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Equifax by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Thompson Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,464 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,749,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equifax by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 1,038 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Equifax by 76.1% during the second quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Lake Street Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in Equifax by 4.5% in the second quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,384 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $336,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EFX has been the topic of several research reports. BNP Paribas raised Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research began coverage on Equifax in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $275.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Equifax from $250.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Equifax from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Equifax presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $302.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equifax news, EVP Carla Chaney sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.85, for a total value of $845,550.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,065,118.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Equifax Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EFX opened at $299.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $36.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.58. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $287.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $259.10. Equifax Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.95 and a fifty-two week high of $309.63.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The credit services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. Equifax had a net margin of 10.67% and a return on equity of 18.88%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.