Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Sells 6,220 Shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lessened its position in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX - Free Report) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 289,750 shares of the credit services provider's stock after selling 6,220 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned approximately 0.24% of Equifax worth $71,652,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of EFX. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 105,549.9% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 38,813,671 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $7,543,825,000 after buying an additional 38,776,933 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Equifax by 77.8% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,935,666 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $1,736,737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910,202 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Equifax in the fourth quarter valued at about $229,992,000. Veritas Asset Management LLP boosted its holdings in Equifax by 58.2% in the third quarter. Veritas Asset Management LLP now owns 1,788,875 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $327,686,000 after purchasing an additional 657,999 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Equifax by 28.6% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,562,758 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $519,829,000 after purchasing an additional 569,794 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.20% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EFX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TheStreet raised Equifax from a "c+" rating to a "b-" rating in a report on Friday, December 29th. Redburn Atlantic cut Equifax from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $272.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Evercore ISI upgraded Equifax from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $210.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $305.00 price objective on shares of Equifax in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Equifax currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $267.00.

Equifax Price Performance

NYSE EFX traded down $20.17 on Thursday, reaching $217.51. 3,635,615 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 825,482. The company has a market cap of $27.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $258.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $230.95. Equifax Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.95 and a 12 month high of $275.10.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.40% and a net margin of 10.36%. The company's revenue was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.43 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Equifax Inc. will post 7.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Equifax's dividend payout ratio is presently 35.45%.

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.