Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) Plans Dividend Increase – $4.69 Per Share

Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be given a dividend of 4.69 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, March 19th. This represents a $18.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. This is a positive change from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.26.

Equinix has increased its dividend by an average of 14.1% annually over the last three years. Equinix has a payout ratio of 114.1% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Equinix to earn $33.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $17.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.2%.

Equinix Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ EQIX opened at $935.20 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $90.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.72. Equinix has a fifty-two week low of $684.14 and a fifty-two week high of $994.03. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $937.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $894.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $7.92 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $5.17. Equinix had a return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 12.29%. On average, analysts forecast that Equinix will post 31.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EQIX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Equinix from $995.00 to $1,080.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Moffett Nathanson raised Equinix from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $1,200.00 target price on shares of Equinix in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Equinix from $865.00 to $984.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on Equinix from $945.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Equinix has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $996.06.

Insider Activity at Equinix

In other Equinix news, EVP Raouf Abdel sold 1,331 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $903.71, for a total value of $1,202,838.01. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Christopher B. Paisley sold 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $891.00, for a total value of $89,100.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,854,454. The trade was a 0.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,801 shares of company stock valued at $15,530,564. 0.27% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.