Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Has $120.25 Million Stake in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 17.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 127,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,192 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned approximately 0.13% of Equinix worth $120,252,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its stake in shares of Equinix by 61.6% during the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 8,427 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,946,000 after purchasing an additional 3,212 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Equinix by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 628,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $592,191,000 after buying an additional 2,560 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its position in Equinix by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 243,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $229,263,000 after acquiring an additional 3,164 shares in the last quarter. Brookfield Corp ON lifted its stake in Equinix by 67.3% in the third quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 80,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $71,685,000 after acquiring an additional 32,481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Equinix by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,361,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Equinix

In related news, Chairman Charles J. Meyers sold 5,788 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $909.81, for a total transaction of $5,265,980.28. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 15,233 shares in the company, valued at $13,859,135.73. This represents a 27.53 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Kurt Pletcher sold 341 shares of Equinix stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $903.72, for a total value of $308,168.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,292,319.60. The trade was a 19.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,054 shares of company stock valued at $17,466,950 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Equinix from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $978.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday. Moffett Nathanson upgraded shares of Equinix from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Equinix from $950.00 to $975.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Equinix from $936.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on Equinix from $1,033.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $989.39.

Equinix Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of EQIX opened at $825.31 on Friday. Equinix, Inc. has a 12 month low of $684.14 and a 12 month high of $994.03. The stock has a market cap of $80.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 96.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $898.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $908.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $7.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $5.17. Equinix had a return on equity of 6.31% and a net margin of 9.32%. Equities analysts predict that Equinix, Inc. will post 33.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

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

About Equinix

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.