Janus Henderson Group PLC Boosts Holdings in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 45.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 535,847 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 166,206 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Equinix were worth $505,280,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of Equinix by 61.6% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 8,427 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,946,000 after purchasing an additional 3,212 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Equinix by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 628,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $592,191,000 after buying an additional 2,560 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of Equinix by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 243,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $229,263,000 after acquiring an additional 3,164 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of Equinix by 19.2% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,361,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Miracle Mile Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Equinix by 43.9% in the 4th quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 12,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,856,000 after acquiring an additional 3,839 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Kurt Pletcher sold 127 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $877.70, for a total transaction of $111,467.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,842 shares in the company, valued at $1,616,723.40. The trade was 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, insider Brandi Galvin Morandi sold 684 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $940.51, for a total value of $643,308.84. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,878,652.27. The trade was a 7.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 7,167 shares of company stock worth $6,658,536. Insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Equinix from $1,040.00 to $1,030.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Cfra Research raised Equinix from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. TD Securities upped their price objective on Equinix from $978.00 to $1,018.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $1,200.00 price objective on shares of Equinix in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Equinix from $1,085.00 to $1,065.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and six have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Equinix presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $1,005.11.

Equinix Stock Performance

EQIX opened at $864.39 on Friday. Equinix, Inc. has a 1-year low of $701.41 and a 1-year high of $994.03. The stock has a market cap of $84.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 101.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $825.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $894.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $9.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.01 by $0.66. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.23 billion. Equinix had a return on equity of 6.31% and a net margin of 9.32%. Equinix’s revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $8.86 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $4.69 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $18.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.17%. Equinix’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 195.01%.

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.