Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. Decreases Holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,077,529 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 42,941 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Equifax were worth $273,035,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Korea Investment CORP increased its stake in shares of Equifax by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 85,524 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $21,796,000 after purchasing an additional 10,744 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Equifax in the 4th quarter valued at about $434,000. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE acquired a new position in Equifax during the fourth quarter worth $510,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Equifax by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,389,505 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,667,165,000 after purchasing an additional 135,009 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Equifax by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 72,135 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $18,384,000 after purchasing an additional 7,343 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EFX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on Equifax from $335.00 to $310.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Equifax from $284.00 to $281.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Equifax from $320.00 to $316.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Gordon Haskett raised Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.56.

Equifax Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:EFX opened at $241.76 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $29.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $252.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $264.40. Equifax Inc. has a 52-week low of $213.02 and a 52-week high of $309.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12. Equifax had a net margin of 10.63% and a return on equity of 19.13%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.30%.

Equifax Profile

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.