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Here's Why You Must Retain Equifax (EFX) Stock for Now

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Equifax Inc. (EFX - Free Report) currently benefits from its wide range of industries and technology transformation.

EFX’s earnings are anticipated to register growth of 6.3% and 15.3% in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Factors That Augur Well

Equifax serves a wide range of industries, such as financial, mortgage, consumer, employees, telecommunications, automotive, commercial, retail, government, resellers and others. This diversified client base is highly beneficial as weakness in any sector can be balanced with strength in the others.

Revenues showed decent growth rates in the last few years. Total revenues saw a CAGR of 7.9% in the last five years (2017-2021). We believe, synergies from acquisitions in addition to continued general consumer credit activity, product innovation, initiatives to foster enterprise growth and efficient business executions will continue to drive Equifax’s revenues over the long run. In the first quarter of 2022, EFX revenues of $1.36 billion improved 12.4% year over year on a reported basis and 13% on a local-currency basis.

EFX’s ongoing cloud data and technology transformation is aimed at driving innovation and product development as well as strengthening customer and partner integration. As part of this transformation, Equifax is migrating to a public cloud environment that involves virtual private cloud-deployment techniques. EFX is focused on streamlining customers’ access to its analytical platforms.

Some Risks

Equifax's current ratio (a measure of liquidity) at the end of the March quarter of 2022 was pegged at 0.54, lower than the current ratio of 0.71 reported at the end of the prior-year quarter. Decreasing current ratio is not desirable as it indicates that the company may have problems meeting its short-term debt obligations.

Shares of EFX have dropped 23% in the past year compared with the 32.3% decline of the industry it belongs to.

Zacks Investment Research
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Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

Equifax currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Avis Budget Group, Inc. (CAR - Free Report) , Genpact Limited (G - Free Report) and CRA International, Inc. (CRAI - Free Report) .

Avis Budget sports a Zacks Rank #1 at present. CAR has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 19.4%.  

Avis Budget delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 102%, on average.  

Genpact carries a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. G has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 12.3%.

Genpact delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 13.3%, on average.  

CRA International carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), currently. CRAI has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 14.3%.

CRAI delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 35.8%, on average.
 

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