KBC Group NV Reduces Stock Position in Equinix, Inc. $EQIX

KBC Group NV reduced its position in shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 53.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 59,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 67,712 shares during the period. KBC Group NV owned 0.06% of Equinix worth $45,205,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. LBP AM SA raised its stake in Equinix by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 69,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,916,000 after buying an additional 2,343 shares in the last quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Equinix by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 2,397 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,836,000 after buying an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Steinberganna Wealth Management raised its stake in Equinix by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Steinberganna Wealth Management now owns 1,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,430,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in Equinix by 57.9% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,287,000 after buying an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tyche Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Equinix in the fourth quarter worth about $310,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on EQIX shares. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Equinix from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $997.00 to $1,050.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Equinix in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Zacks Research raised shares of Equinix from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $1,075.00 target price on shares of Equinix in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Equinix in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $1,128.00 target price for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,046.57.

Equinix Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EQIX opened at $1,070.90 on Friday. Equinix, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $710.52 and a fifty-two week high of $1,072.88. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $967.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $849.53. The company has a market capitalization of $105.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported $8.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.07 by ($0.16). Equinix had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 9.60%. The business had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $7.92 EPS. Equinix’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $5.16 per share. This is a positive change from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.69. This represents a $20.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 25th. Equinix’s payout ratio is 150.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equinix

In other Equinix news, Chairman Charles J. Meyers sold 2,716 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $965.15, for a total transaction of $2,621,347.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 12,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,155,099.10. This trade represents a 17.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jonathan Lin sold 635 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $965.71, for a total transaction of $613,225.85. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 10,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,418,079.48. This trade represents a 5.56% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 6,380 shares of company stock valued at $6,179,022. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Equinix Profile

Equinix, Inc is a global provider of digital infrastructure and interconnection services, specializing in carrier-neutral data centers and colocation. The company operates a platform that enables enterprises, cloud and network service providers, and content companies to colocate IT infrastructure, interconnect directly with partners and providers, and access cloud on-ramps and network services in a secure, low-latency environment.

Equinix’s offerings include traditional colocation space and power, cross-connects and meet-me rooms, and a suite of connectivity and on-demand services designed for hybrid multicloud architectures.