Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. Grows Position in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 428,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,756 shares during the period. Equinix comprises 4.8% of Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Equinix were worth $403,831,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equinix during the 4th quarter worth approximately $18,727,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Equinix during the 4th quarter worth $1,067,270,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its position in shares of Equinix by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $215,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Equinix by 30.7% in the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 5,292 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,244 shares during the period. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Equinix by 53.0% during the fourth quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 48,631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,854,000 after purchasing an additional 16,852 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Equinix

In other Equinix news, CFO Keith D. Taylor sold 3,184 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $909.82, for a total transaction of $2,896,866.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 22,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,085,186.32. This represents a 12.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Charles J. Meyers sold 5,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $909.81, for a total transaction of $5,265,980.28. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 15,233 shares in the company, valued at $13,859,135.73. This represents a 27.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 19,054 shares of company stock worth $17,466,950. 0.27% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Equinix from $822.00 to $834.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Equinix from $936.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $1,200.00 target price on shares of Equinix in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Equinix from $950.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Equinix from $1,085.00 to $1,065.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $989.39.

Equinix Price Performance

EQIX stock opened at $825.31 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $898.21 and a 200 day moving average of $908.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $80.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 96.53, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.74. Equinix, Inc. has a 1 year low of $684.14 and a 1 year high of $994.03.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $7.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $5.17. Equinix had a net margin of 9.32% and a return on equity of 6.31%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 EPS for the current year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were given a $4.69 dividend. This represents a $18.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. This is a boost from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.26. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. Equinix’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 219.42%.

Equinix Company Profile

Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure company . Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.