Pacer Advisors Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

Key Points

• Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Equinix, Inc. by 5.3% in Q1, holding approximately $64.15 million in the company's stock.
• Equinix's stock has faced mixed analyst ratings, with targets being cut by BMO Capital Markets to $850 and raised to a "strong-buy" rating by New Street Research.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $4.69 per share, resulting in an annualized yield of 2.34% despite a high payout ratio of 195.01%.

Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX - Free Report) by 5.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 78,674 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,968 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.08% of Equinix worth $64,147,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in EQIX. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Equinix during the 4th quarter worth about $1,067,270,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Equinix by 82,340.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 890,362 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $725,957,000 after purchasing an additional 889,282 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Equinix by 65.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,483,781 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,399,042,000 after buying an additional 586,034 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Equinix by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,804,227 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,701,188,000 after buying an additional 401,991 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Equinix in the fourth quarter worth $205,641,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kurt Pletcher sold 127 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $877.70, for a total transaction of $111,467.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,842 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,616,723.40. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Christopher B. Paisley sold 100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $869.41, for a total value of $86,941.00. Following the sale, the director owned 17,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,274,664.29. This trade represents a 0.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,176 shares of company stock worth $2,808,008. Insiders own 0.27% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on EQIX shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Equinix from $1,065.00 to $925.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Equinix from $1,000.00 to $950.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. New Street Research upgraded shares of Equinix to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Mizuho cut their price target on Equinix from $1,069.00 to $900.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, Guggenheim initiated coverage on Equinix in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "buy" rating and a $933.00 price objective for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $957.05.

Equinix Price Performance

Equinix stock traded down $5.97 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $805.16. The company had a trading volume of 78,337 shares, compared to its average volume of 640,546. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $835.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $855.79. Equinix, Inc. has a 1 year low of $701.41 and a 1 year high of $994.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.65. The company has a market capitalization of $78.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 83.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.93.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $9.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $9.01 by $0.66. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.23 billion. Equinix had a return on equity of 6.96% and a net margin of 10.48%. Equinix's quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $8.86 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 EPS for the current year.

About Equinix

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.