Should You Expect Steady Growth in Equifax (EFX)?
Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned 10.41%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of 10.40%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned 10.44%, compared to a 9.50% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. Balanced security selection across health care, industrials, consumer staples, consumer discretionary, and communication services led the portfolio to outperform the index in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund featured stocks like Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) in the Q1 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) offers information solutions and human resources business process outsourcing services. On April 11, 2024, Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) stock closed at $249.22 per share. One-month return of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) was -1.47%, and its shares gained 27.50% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) has a market capitalization of $30.96 billion.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
"Notable adds in the quarter included Xylem, NVR and Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX). Equifax is the largest provider of income and employment verification in the US (Workforce Solutions) and one of the three largest global credit bureaus. Within its credit business, we believe mortgage volumes likely troughed in 2023 as 30-year fixed mortgage rates reached 20-year highs, and going forward, we expect either rates will fall or consumers will get used to the new normal. In either case, home purchase volumes should recover. Meanwhile, the Workforce Solutions business has meaningful growth opportunities, including servicing public sector clients seeking to verify eligibility for public benefits. We expect steady growth in Workforce Solutions plus a multiyear recovery in mortgage-related revenues to drive significant margin expansion as Equifax leverages its large investments in data and systems. Earnings results were thesis affirming, with top- and bottom-line outperformance driven by the Workforce Solutions business."
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Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) was held by 32 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 29 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We previously discussed Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) in another article, where we shared Artisan Mid Cap Fund's perspective on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
