Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 242,121 Shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Equinix, Inc. by 1.9% in Q1, owning over 12.9 million shares valued at approximately $10.5 billion.
• Equinix also announced a quarterly dividend of $4.69 per share, with a yield of 2.4%, set to be paid on September 17th.
• Analysts maintain a consensus rating of "Buy" for Equinix, with price targets ranging significantly, including a high of $1,200.

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX - Free Report) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,906,820 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 242,121 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 13.19% of Equinix worth $10,523,576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pinney & Scofield Inc. bought a new position in Equinix in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Pacific Center for Financial Services boosted its holdings in shares of Equinix by 65.2% during the 4th quarter. Pacific Center for Financial Services now owns 38 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Equinix by 127.8% in the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 41 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Equinix by 40.0% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 42 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Equinix during the 4th quarter valued at about $49,000. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Equinix from $904.00 to $961.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank cut their price target on Equinix from $1,030.00 to $965.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Wolfe Research lowered Equinix from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Equinix from $1,050.00 to $1,010.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Equinix from $837.00 to $798.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Equinix presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $959.86.

Insider Activity at Equinix

In related news, CEO Adaire Fox-Martin sold 2,949 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $884.91, for a total transaction of $2,609,599.59. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,615 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,508,409.65. This represents a 23.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Christopher B. Paisley sold 100 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $869.41, for a total transaction of $86,941.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 17,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,274,664.29. The trade was a 0.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Equinix Price Performance

EQIX traded up $6.34 during trading on Thursday, hitting $779.34. 324,947 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 561,025. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market cap of $76.27 billion, a PE ratio of 76.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.90. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $823.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $849.99. Equinix, Inc. has a 1 year low of $701.41 and a 1 year high of $994.03.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $9.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $6.42. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. Equinix had a return on equity of 7.22% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $9.22 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $4.69 per share. This represents a $18.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. Equinix's dividend payout ratio is 183.74%.

Equinix Profile

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.