Employees Retirement System of Texas Increases Position in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

Employees Retirement System of Texas raised its holdings in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 55.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 77,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,570 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas owned 0.08% of Equinix worth $72,951,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EQIX. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its position in Equinix by 61.6% during the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 8,427 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,946,000 after buying an additional 3,212 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Equinix by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 628,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $592,191,000 after acquiring an additional 2,560 shares during the period. National Pension Service grew its holdings in Equinix by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 243,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $229,263,000 after purchasing an additional 3,164 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in Equinix by 19.2% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,361,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Equinix by 46.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 294,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $278,712,000 after purchasing an additional 92,975 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQIX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Equinix from $1,028.00 to $990.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded Equinix from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $978.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Equinix to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Equinix from $822.00 to $834.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Equinix from $1,085.00 to $1,065.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Equinix currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $1,007.59.

Insider Activity at Equinix

In other Equinix news, EVP Raouf Abdel sold 1,331 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $903.71, for a total transaction of $1,202,838.01. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,945,508.09. This represents a 16.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Adaire Fox-Martin sold 1,370 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $909.51, for a total transaction of $1,246,028.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,937,268.79. This trade represents a 24.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 19,054 shares of company stock valued at $17,466,950. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Equinix Stock Performance

Equinix stock opened at $766.21 on Monday. Equinix, Inc. has a 52 week low of $684.14 and a 52 week high of $994.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $74.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $883.46 and a 200-day moving average of $906.83.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $7.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $5.17. Equinix had a net margin of 9.32% and a return on equity of 6.31%. On average, analysts expect that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a $4.69 dividend. This represents a $18.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. This is an increase from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. Equinix’s payout ratio is 219.42%.

Equinix Company Profile

Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure company . Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.