Brokerages Set Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) PT at $779.28

Shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX – Get Rating) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $779.28.

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Equinix from $750.00 to $760.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Equinix from $750.00 to $825.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 17th. TD Securities increased their price objective on Equinix from $750.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Equinix in a research note on Wednesday, December 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $886.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Equinix from $800.00 to $820.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 16th.

Equinix Price Performance

EQIX stock opened at $690.85 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $64.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.95, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.61. Equinix has a twelve month low of $494.89 and a twelve month high of $776.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $710.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $652.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.90 by ($4.51). The business had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.86 billion. Equinix had a return on equity of 6.37% and a net margin of 9.70%. The company’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.22 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Equinix will post 27.53 EPS for the current year.

Equinix Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 7th will be issued a $3.41 dividend. This represents a $13.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. This is an increase from Equinix’s previous quarterly dividend of $3.10. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 6th. Equinix’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 177.60%.

Insider Transactions at Equinix

In other news, insider Karl Strohmeyer sold 2,353 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $707.41, for a total value of $1,664,535.73. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,431 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,453,093.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Keith D. Taylor sold 1,358 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $688.48, for a total transaction of $934,955.84. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 24,177 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,645,380.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Karl Strohmeyer sold 2,353 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $707.41, for a total value of $1,664,535.73. Following the sale, the insider now owns 20,431 shares in the company, valued at $14,453,093.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,971 shares of company stock worth $14,666,488 in the last three months. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinix

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Equinix by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,011,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,832,805,000 after purchasing an additional 82,116 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Equinix by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,056,624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,151,771,000 after purchasing an additional 31,578 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Equinix by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,008,037 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,947,400,000 after purchasing an additional 630,477 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Equinix by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,980,858 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,296,046,000 after purchasing an additional 61,918 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Equinix by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,815,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,192,709,000 after acquiring an additional 250,501 shares in the last quarter. 92.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Equinix

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Equinix, Inc engages in the provision of collocation space and develops data center solutions. The firm offers secure key management, consulting, network virtualization, customer support, and managed services. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Asia-Pacific.