Securian Asset Management Inc. Has $1.68 Million Position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Securian Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,580 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 270 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Equifax were worth $1,677,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Equifax by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,816,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,415,284,000 after acquiring an additional 52,489 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 37.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,233,744 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $950,268,000 after purchasing an additional 880,162 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 1.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,885,661 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $845,041,000 after purchasing an additional 29,742 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,835,102 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $467,676,000 after purchasing an additional 9,702 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 95.9% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $412,239,000 after purchasing an additional 791,730 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on EFX shares. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on shares of Equifax from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Equifax from $335.00 to $310.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Equifax from $321.00 to $313.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Equifax from $304.00 to $283.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Equifax currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $301.13.

Equifax Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:EFX opened at $237.14 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $254.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $268.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Equifax Inc. has a one year low of $213.02 and a one year high of $309.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.41 billion, a PE ratio of 49.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.12. Equifax had a net margin of 10.63% and a return on equity of 19.13%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.30%.

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.