California Public Employees Retirement System Increases Stock Position in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 350,704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,166 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.36% of Equinix worth $330,675,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Equinix in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,067,270,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Equinix in the fourth quarter worth $328,899,000. Adelante Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Equinix by 202.3% in the 3rd quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC now owns 514,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $456,441,000 after purchasing an additional 344,114 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equinix during the 4th quarter valued at $246,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Equinix by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,338,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,188,180,000 after purchasing an additional 203,656 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on EQIX shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Equinix from $936.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Equinix from $822.00 to $834.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. 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 research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Equinix from $1,085.00 to $1,065.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Equinix to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Equinix currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $1,007.59.

Equinix Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of EQIX stock opened at $803.00 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $895.96 and its 200 day moving average is $908.73. Equinix, Inc. has a 52-week low of $684.14 and a 52-week high of $994.03. The company has a market capitalization of $78.16 billion, a PE ratio of 93.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63.

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

Equinix Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th were paid a $4.69 dividend. This represents a $18.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This is a boost from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.26. Equinix’s dividend payout ratio is currently 219.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equinix

In related news, EVP Raouf Abdel sold 1,331 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $903.71, for a total transaction of $1,202,838.01. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,945,508.09. This trade represents a 16.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kurt Pletcher sold 341 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $903.72, for a total value of $308,168.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,292,319.60. This represents a 19.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,054 shares of company stock worth $17,466,950 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Equinix 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.