North Dakota State Investment Board Acquires New Shares in Equinix, Inc. $EQIX

Key Points

• North Dakota State Investment Board disclosed a new fourth-quarter stake in Equinix, buying 3,351 shares valued at about $2.57 million. The filing also showed institutional investors still control the vast majority of the company’s stock.
• Equinix posted strong first-quarter results, reporting EPS of $10.79, well above analyst expectations, while revenue rose 9.8% year over year to $2.44 billion. The company also reaffirmed a full-year outlook and analysts currently rate the stock Moderate Buy on average.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $5.16 per share, payable June 17, for an annualized yield of about 1.9%. At the same time, several executives and insiders have recently sold shares, including the chairman’s large May sale.

North Dakota State Investment Board acquired a new stake in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 3,351 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,567,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ameriflex Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Equinix by 433.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. now owns 32 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Equinix by 200.0% in the 4th quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 42 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. WPG Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Equinix by 51.7% in the 4th quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 44 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its position in shares of Equinix by 40.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 45 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Activest Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Equinix by 81.5% in the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 49 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on EQIX. Stifel Nicolaus set a $1,075.00 price objective on shares of Equinix in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a "buy" rating and issued a $1,207.00 price objective on shares of Equinix in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Equinix from $1,050.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Equinix from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Equinix from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equinix has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $1,143.60.

Equinix Stock Performance

EQIX opened at $1,062.62 on Tuesday. The business's 50-day moving average price is $1,028.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $889.27. Equinix, Inc. has a 1 year low of $710.52 and a 1 year high of $1,128.68. The company has a market capitalization of $104.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $10.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.30 by $6.49. Equinix had a return on equity of 10.03% and a net margin of 15.07%.The firm had revenue of $2.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $9.67 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equinix has set its FY 2026 guidance at 42.310-43.110 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Equinix, Inc. will post 37.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be paid a $5.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $20.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Equinix's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 142.84%.

Insider Transactions at Equinix

In other Equinix news, EVP Raouf Abdel sold 584 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $965.69, for a total value of $563,962.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 7,768 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,501,479.92. This trade represents a 6.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Charles J. Meyers sold 5,224 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,085.23, for a total value of $5,669,241.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 7,370 shares in the company, valued at $7,998,145.10. This represents a 41.48% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 11,604 shares of company stock worth $11,848,264. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Equinix Company 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.