Townsquare Capital LLC Raises Position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX - Free Report) by 10.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,357 shares of the credit services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,565 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC's holdings in Equifax were worth $4,169,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EFX. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Equifax by 2.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 184,890 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $54,329,000 after purchasing an additional 5,097 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Equifax in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,797,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equifax in the third quarter valued at approximately $95,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equifax by 27.3% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 16,909 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $4,969,000 after acquiring an additional 3,629 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in Equifax by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 5,872 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $1,726,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the period. 96.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EFX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays reiterated an "equal weight" rating and set a $260.00 price objective (down from $325.00) on shares of Equifax in a report on Friday, April 4th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Equifax from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $265.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Equifax from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $300.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Gordon Haskett upgraded Equifax to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Equifax in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $292.31.

Equifax Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Equifax stock traded up $2.15 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $221.43. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,458,636 shares, compared to its average volume of 966,883. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.75. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $236.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $255.42. The company has a market capitalization of $27.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65. Equifax Inc. has a one year low of $199.98 and a one year high of $309.63.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.12. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. On average, research analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Equifax's dividend payout ratio is 32.30%.

Equifax 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.