Is Equifax Inc. (EFX) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of gauges investors can use to track the equity markets. A couple of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can beat the market by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the financial markets. Obviously, there are a variety of stimuli for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you know what to do (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the key action regarding Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX).

Hedge fund activity in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

At Q1’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -21% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

Of the funds we track, Eminence Capital, managed by Ricky Sandler, holds the biggest position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX). Eminence Capital has a $63.6 million position in the stock, comprising 1.6% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which held a $44.5 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies with similar optimism include David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Due to the fact that Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) has faced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers who sold off their entire stakes at the end of the first quarter. Intriguingly, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors sold off the largest position of all the hedgies we monitor, comprising about $39.6 million in stock., and Andrew Sandler of Sandler Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $7 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 6 funds at the end of the first quarter.

How are insiders trading Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX). These stocks are Credit Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:CACC), SLM Corp (NASDAQ:SLM), CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT), and The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU). This group of stocks are the members of the credit services industry and their market caps are similar to EFX’s market cap.