Bank of Montreal Can Boosts Stock Holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 93,795 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,748 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned about 0.08% of Equifax worth $27,237,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in EFX. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Equifax by 76,913.8% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 960,362 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $282,212,000 after buying an additional 959,115 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Equifax by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,276,798 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,952,000 after buying an additional 200,665 shares in the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Equifax by 127.1% in the 2nd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 350,356 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $84,947,000 after acquiring an additional 196,106 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Equifax by 27.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 606,969 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $147,166,000 after purchasing an additional 130,249 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Equifax by 5,123.0% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 115,114 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $33,827,000 after buying an additional 112,910 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EFX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas upgraded Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Equifax from $290.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Equifax in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $360.00 price target for the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Equifax from $277.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $306.74.

Equifax Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of EFX stock opened at $261.56 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $32.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.12, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.59. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $274.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $268.38. Equifax Inc. has a 1-year low of $213.02 and a 1-year high of $309.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The credit services provider reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.84 by $0.01. Equifax had a net margin of 10.07% and a return on equity of 18.56%. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.76 earnings per share. Equifax’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equifax news, EVP John J. Kelley III sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.92, for a total value of $272,920.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,269 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,075,535.48. The trade was a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,304 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $15,770,648.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 109,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,532,909.67. This represents a 34.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 59,855 shares of company stock valued at $16,187,044. Company insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

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.