Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) Shares Sold by Maryland State Retirement & Pension System

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its stake in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,559 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 459 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Equifax were worth $1,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Equifax by 1.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,816,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,415,284,000 after purchasing an additional 52,489 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted 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 lifted 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 lifted 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 lifted 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EFX. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Argus lowered shares of Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Equifax from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equifax presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $298.56.

Equifax Stock Performance

Shares of Equifax stock opened at $244.06 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65. Equifax Inc. has a 52 week low of $213.02 and a 52 week high of $309.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $252.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $265.78.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.12. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. Research 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 was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

About Equifax

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.