Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Buys 18,279 Shares of Equinix, Inc. $EQIX

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 184.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 28,177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 18,279 shares during the period. Equinix comprises approximately 0.7% of Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Equinix were worth $22,069,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in EQIX. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC raised its position in shares of Equinix by 21.1% during the 2nd quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC now owns 384 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Equinix by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 544,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $426,444,000 after buying an additional 7,409 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Equinix by 25.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,875,355 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,252,094,000 after buying an additional 588,967 shares in the last quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Equinix by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 36,908 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,908,000 after buying an additional 1,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership raised its holdings in Equinix by 10.0% during the third quarter. Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership now owns 26,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,425,000 after acquiring an additional 2,378 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equinix

In related news, CFO Keith D. Taylor sold 2,051 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $804.17, for a total transaction of $1,649,352.67. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 26,373 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,208,375.41. This trade represents a 7.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Charles J. Meyers sold 2,716 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $965.15, for a total value of $2,621,347.40. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 12,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,155,099.10. This represents a 17.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,842 shares of company stock valued at $14,494,840. 0.27% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EQIX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded Equinix from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Equinix from $925.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $915.00 target price on Equinix in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Barclays restated a “positive” rating and issued a $870.00 price target on shares of Equinix in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Equinix from $950.00 to $1,100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,006.91.

Equinix Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of EQIX opened at $969.90 on Monday. Equinix, Inc. has a twelve month low of $701.41 and a twelve month high of $992.90. The company has a market cap of $95.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $871.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $814.04.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported $8.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $9.07 by ($0.16). Equinix had a return on equity of 9.60% and a net margin of 14.65%.The firm had revenue of $2.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $7.92 EPS. Equinix’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 EPS for the current year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 25th will be paid a $5.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 25th. This is an increase from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.69. This represents a $20.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Equinix’s payout ratio is 150.11%.

Equinix Profile

Equinix, Inc is a global provider of digital infrastructure and interconnection services, specializing in carrier-neutral data centers and colocation. The company operates a platform that enables enterprises, cloud and network service providers, and content companies to colocate IT infrastructure, interconnect directly with partners and providers, and access cloud on-ramps and network services in a secure, low-latency environment.

Equinix’s offerings include traditional colocation space and power, cross-connects and meet-me rooms, and a suite of connectivity and on-demand services designed for hybrid multicloud architectures.