Wells Fargo Upgrades Equifax (EFX) to Outperform, 'Megabreach Creates Opportunity'

Wells Fargo upgraded Equifax (NYSE: EFX) from Market Perform to Outperform with a price target of $127.00 (from $135.00).

Analyst William Warmington Jr. comments "We are upgrading EFX from Market Perform to Outperform following a 31% decline in the shares (vs. the S&P 500 +1.4%) since the company first announced a data breach impacting 143MM US consumers on 9/7/2017. The magnitude of the breach combined with a multitude of high-profile issues (notification timing, Congressional investigations/hearings insider stock sales, management turnover) have created, in our opinion, an attractive entry point for this high-quality consumer credit franchise. In this note we attempt to quantify the potential financial impact of the breach (framed as bull, base and bear cases) and are lowering our ests to reflect the base case. Despite the poor publicity, we believe EFX’s core B2B business will be largely unaffected."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Equifax click here. For more ratings news on Equifax click here.

Shares of Equifax closed at $98.25 yesterday.

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