Robert Lauzon Equinix, Inc. EQIX-Q PAST TOP PICK Feb 23, 2021

King of all data centre REITs. Phenomenal company. Great scale. Picks and shovels in AI, and AI is all about data. Biggest data centre in the world, as all the big cloud companies use it. Relentless growth in cloud, secular growth still in early innings. Yield is 1.98%.

EQIX operates as a data center REIT, and is now trading at 31.7x times' EV/EBITDA (historical averages range from 22x to 33x). The company's growth was mainly fueled by acquisitions of data centers by issuing debt and equity. The balance sheet is leveraged, similar to other REITs in the industry, with net debt of $14.3B, and net debt/EBITDA is currently at 5.1x. The company had a continuous track record of growing AFFO lasting for around a decade, which supports consistent dividend growth. We like EQIX, but the valuation may not be attractive enough for an entry point, we would be comfortable averaging into the position and nibble into the name when opportunities present. The income is solid, but we would not be in a big rush to add. That being said, lower interest rates (if they occur) should be quite positive for the sector overall. 
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Storage company for data (competes with AWS). Good for large corporations. Single server source. Many competitors in the market making business harder. Historically, share price has preformed well. Sector entering a commodity phase. Would not invest at this time. 

Should be one of the Magnificent 7. Huge migration to cloud, cloud resides in data centres, and EQIX is the biggest one out there. Growth of cloud still in early innings. Really good at scaling because they're so big. Beat top and bottom, guided up. 12-month price target of $992, decent runway.

Visited company HQ last week. Management has responded to the report, more to come, stock's already recouped losses from the report. About to see explosive growth in data centres with AI, current supply can't meet demand. In a great position. Well run. Digest short-term noise, feels good long term.

He's quite bullish on the data centre space. Demand is really outpacing supply for the first time in years, at a time when AI deployments have only just begun. The big-data guys like MSFT, AMZN and GOOG are taking all the space they can.

One of the largest REITs in US and globally. 10% earnings growth next year, trades at 25-30x. Interesting runway for growth. See his Top Picks.

Trades at 25x free cash flow. A landlord to the digital world, housing data centres, and are the biggest public company in the world doing this. Companies and their vendors can all be connected via Equinix ("interconnection"), which benefits all.

Trades at 25x free cash flow. A landlord to the digital world, housing data centres, and are the biggest public company in the world doing this. Companies and their vendors can all be connected via Equinix ("interconnection"), which benefits all.

It's been a REIT since 2015. Crown Castle and American Tower have lagged in comparison. The challenge with EQIX is that it already rallied due to its partnership with Amazon. However, he wouldn't chase this now in this part of the cycle.

Other than its high debt, we think the outlook is decent here, with good growth expected. Q4 results were strong, but 2025 guidance was messy, and this could continue to weigh on shares. There are also some f/x and power headwinds. Overall, though, we think there is decent potential here for growth. We do have a harder time getting over the very high valuation of 33X cash flow. This leaves little room for errors/mistakes and thus leave us a bit less enamoured. 
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