AIA Group Ltd Acquires 3,455 Shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

AIA Group Ltd lifted its holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 43.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,372 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,455 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Equifax were worth $3,042,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 1.1% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 292,914 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $78,360,000 after buying an additional 3,164 shares during the period. Weitz Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Equifax by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 153,500 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $37,959,000 after purchasing an additional 7,500 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in Equifax during the 4th quarter valued at $917,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in Equifax by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 330,453 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $81,718,000 after purchasing an additional 8,668 shares during the period. Finally, Bridgefront Capital LLC purchased a new position in Equifax during the 4th quarter valued at $1,274,000. 96.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equifax

In other Equifax news, Director Karen L. Fichuk purchased 415 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $238.77 per share, with a total value of $99,089.55. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 3,305 shares in the company, valued at $789,134.85. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Equifax news, Director Karen L. Fichuk purchased 415 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $238.77 per share, with a total value of $99,089.55. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 3,305 shares in the company, valued at $789,134.85. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Rodolfo O. Ploder sold 14,097 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total value of $3,178,168.65. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 75,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,126,083.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 83,635 shares of company stock worth $18,969,282 over the last quarter. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EFX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Equifax from $291.00 to $272.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Equifax from $276.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Equifax from $275.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Equifax from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Equifax from $290.00 to $273.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Equifax currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.47.

Equifax Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:EFX traded up $5.08 on Friday, hitting $257.97. 634,206 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 822,771. Equifax Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.95 and a 12 month high of $275.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.56. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $240.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $246.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 10.42%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.43 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Equifax Inc. will post 7.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th were paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.74%.

Equifax Company 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.