Howard Capital Management Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Howard Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 879 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Equifax were worth $224,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of EFX. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 37.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,233,744 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $950,268,000 after purchasing an additional 880,162 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 95.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $412,239,000 after purchasing an additional 791,730 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 34.2% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 863,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $251,480,000 after purchasing an additional 220,109 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 767,136 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $225,431,000 after purchasing an additional 88,895 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,816,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,415,284,000 after purchasing an additional 52,489 shares during the period. 96.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EFX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Equifax from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Equifax from $335.00 to $310.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lowered their target price on Equifax from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Equifax from $304.00 to $283.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Gordon Haskett upgraded Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Equifax currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $301.13.

Equifax Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of EFX opened at $245.43 on Wednesday. Equifax Inc. has a twelve month low of $213.02 and a twelve month high of $309.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market cap of $30.44 billion, a PE ratio of 50.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.58. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $256.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $272.34.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.12. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s payout ratio 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.