Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 142,008 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 5,440 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.11% of Equifax worth $36,191,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EFX. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Equifax by 76,913.8% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 960,362 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $282,212,000 after acquiring an additional 959,115 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Equifax by 37.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,233,744 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $950,268,000 after acquiring an additional 880,162 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Equifax by 95.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $412,239,000 after acquiring an additional 791,730 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Equifax by 34.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 863,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $251,480,000 after acquiring an additional 220,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Equifax by 5,123.0% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 115,114 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $33,827,000 after acquiring an additional 112,910 shares during the last quarter. 96.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research cut Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Argus cut Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Equifax from $286.00 to $279.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. BNP Paribas upgraded Equifax from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Gordon Haskett upgraded Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equifax currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $301.13.

Equifax Stock Down 1.3 %

Equifax stock opened at $238.04 on Friday. Equifax Inc. has a twelve month low of $213.02 and a twelve month high of $309.63. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $258.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $272.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.58.

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, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.30%.

Insider Activity at Equifax

In related news, EVP Lisa M. Nelson sold 551 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.39, for a total value of $143,474.89. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,045,781.83. This represents a 4.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Equifax Company Profile

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.