Morgan Stanley Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Equifax (NYSE:EFX)

Morgan Stanley reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Equifax (NYSE:EFX - Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $305.00 target price on the credit services provider's stock, up from their previous target price of $295.00.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Equifax from $288.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $295.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Equifax from $277.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays restated an "equal weight" rating and set a $260.00 price objective (down previously from $325.00) on shares of Equifax in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Argus downgraded Equifax from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $293.75.

Equifax Price Performance

Shares of Equifax stock traded up $0.55 on Tuesday, hitting $272.47. The company had a trading volume of 219,658 shares, compared to its average volume of 973,887. Equifax has a 52 week low of $199.98 and a 52 week high of $309.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a market cap of $33.84 billion, a PE ratio of 56.45, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.63. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $253.24.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The credit services provider reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.41 billion. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. Research analysts expect that Equifax will post 7.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Equifax's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Equifax's payout ratio is presently 40.90%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equifax news, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 22,160 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.61, for a total value of $5,686,477.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 142,395 shares in the company, valued at $36,539,980.95. This represents a 13.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP John W. Gamble, Jr. sold 2,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.10, for a total value of $518,200.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 65,176 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,887,101.60. This represents a 2.98% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EFX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Equifax by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,708,331 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $3,582,361,000 after purchasing an additional 318,826 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Equifax by 40.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,037,804 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $1,714,129,000 after buying an additional 2,009,987 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P boosted its stake in shares of Equifax by 27.6% in the first quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 4,570,557 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $1,113,205,000 after buying an additional 987,772 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its position in Equifax by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 3,123,701 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $796,075,000 after buying an additional 11,861 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Equifax by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,957,204 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $751,645,000 after acquiring an additional 71,543 shares during the period. 96.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.