Sowell Financial Services LLC Invests $336,000 in Equifax, Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equifax, Inc. (NYSE:EFX - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,378 shares of the credit services provider's stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EFX. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Equifax during the 4th quarter worth about $330,400,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 7,883,233.3% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 946,000 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $241,087,000 after purchasing an additional 945,988 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 24,315.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 696,094 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $169,541,000 after purchasing an additional 693,243 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,027,817 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $1,281,340,000 after purchasing an additional 679,688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Equifax during the 4th quarter worth about $113,896,000. Institutional investors own 96.20% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EFX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Equifax from $288.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Equifax in a research report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas cut shares of Equifax from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $265.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and issued a $260.00 price target (down previously from $325.00) on shares of Equifax in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $305.00 price target (up previously from $295.00) on shares of Equifax in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $294.63.

Equifax Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of EFX stock opened at $255.31 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $259.09 and a 200-day moving average of $253.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. Equifax, Inc. has a 12-month low of $199.98 and a 12-month high of $309.63. The firm has a market cap of $31.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.21, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.63.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.08. Equifax had a net margin of 10.68% and a return on equity of 18.81%. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equifax, Inc. will post 7.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Friday, May 23rd were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. This is a positive change from Equifax's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 23rd. Equifax's payout ratio is currently 40.90%.

Insider Activity at Equifax

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

About Equifax

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.

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