Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lowered its position in Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Equinix were worth $4,903,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC increased its position in Equinix by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,702 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,511,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Equinix by 27.5% during the third quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 659 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $585,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equinix during the third quarter valued at about $328,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its position in shares of Equinix by 15.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 4,617 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,098,000 after purchasing an additional 609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its stake in Equinix by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 7,754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,883,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Equinix Stock Performance

EQIX opened at $935.20 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $90.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $937.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $894.48. Equinix, Inc. has a 1 year low of $684.14 and a 1 year high of $994.03.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $7.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $5.17. Equinix had a net margin of 12.29% and a return on equity of 8.34%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Equinix, Inc. will post 31.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be issued a $4.69 dividend. This is a positive change from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $4.26. This represents a $18.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. Equinix’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 153.65%.

Insider Transactions at Equinix

In other news, Director Christopher B. Paisley sold 100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $891.00, for a total transaction of $89,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,854,454. The trade was a 0.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kurt Pletcher sold 222 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $962.20, for a total transaction of $213,608.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $976,633. This trade represents a 17.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,801 shares of company stock valued at $15,530,564 in the last three months. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on EQIX. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Equinix from $995.00 to $1,080.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Citizens Jmp raised Equinix to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Equinix from $945.00 to $975.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Equinix from $936.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Equinix from $865.00 to $984.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $996.06.

Equinix 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.