Equifax (NYSE:EFX) Earns “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Equifax (NYSE:EFX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $305.00 target price on the credit services provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 40.18% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on EFX. Bank of America raised shares of Equifax from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $164.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Equifax from $195.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 29th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Equifax from $273.00 to $291.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Equifax from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $272.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $267.00.

Equifax Price Performance

Shares of EFX stock traded down $20.11 on Thursday, hitting $217.57. 2,366,442 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 807,860. The firm has a market cap of $27.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.41, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.51. Equifax has a 52 week low of $159.95 and a 52 week high of $275.10. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $259.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $231.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Equifax had a net margin of 10.36% and a return on equity of 19.40%. The company’s revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.43 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Equifax will post 7.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equifax

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in Equifax by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,838 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings in Equifax by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 2,022 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $500,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Equifax by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 1,038 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Equifax by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 637 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Equifax by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $231,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.20% of the company’s stock.

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.