Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.39

Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.39 per share by the credit services provider on Wednesday, June 19th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%.

Equifax has a payout ratio of 16.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Equifax to earn $9.60 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.3%.

Equifax Stock Performance

NYSE:EFX traded up $3.60 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $224.27. The company had a trading volume of 286,108 shares, compared to its average volume of 859,161. Equifax has a 1-year low of $159.95 and a 1-year high of $275.10. The firm has a market cap of $27.72 billion, a PE ratio of 49.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.54. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $252.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $233.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The credit services provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.06. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 10.42%. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. Equifax’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Equifax will post 7.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equifax

In other Equifax news, EVP Rodolfo O. Ploder sold 14,097 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total value of $3,178,168.65. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 75,964 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,126,083.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Rodolfo O. Ploder sold 14,097 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total value of $3,178,168.65. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 75,964 shares in the company, valued at $17,126,083.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark W. Begor sold 58,300 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.45, for a total value of $13,143,735.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 109,220 shares in the company, valued at $24,623,649. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EFX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised Equifax from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $210.00 to $310.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Equifax from $276.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded 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. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on Equifax from $291.00 to $272.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Equifax from $208.00 to $289.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Equifax presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $270.19.

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.