Equinix, Inc. EQIX is scheduled to report first-quarter 2026 results on April 29, after market close. The company’s quarterly results are likely to display a year-over-year rise in revenues and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share.
In the previous quarter, this Redwood City, CA-based data center real estate investment trust (REIT) reported an AFFO of $8.91 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $9.07 per share. Results reflected higher recurring revenues, led by strong demand for digital infrastructure and services.
Over the preceding four quarters, EQIX’s AFFO per share surpassed the consensus estimate on three occasions and missed once, the average beat being 5.04%. This is depicted in the graph below:
Equinix, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
Equinix, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Equinix, Inc. Quote
Factors at Play for Equinix
In the first quarter of 2026, Equinix is likely to have benefited from the solid demand for interconnected data center infrastructure. Enterprises and service providers’ continued efforts to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their strategies and offerings and advance their digital transformation agendas are likely to keep demand up in the upcoming years.
Moreover, the demand for Equinix’s interconnected ecosystem remains strong, driven by an acceleration in enterprise cloud adoption and increasing cloud or Internet customers’ demands for highly interconnected data center space.
The company’s recurring revenue model, which comprises colocation, related interconnection and managed infrastructure services, is expected to have supported stable cash flows in the to-be-reported quarter, boosting the data center REIT’s top line.
Q1 Projections for EQIX
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for colocation revenues is pegged at $1.74 billion, suggesting growth from $1.55 billion in the prior-year period. The consensus mark for interconnection revenues is pegged at $439.1 million, indicating growth from $393 million in the prior-year period.
The consensus mark for managed infrastructure revenues is pegged at $120.3 million, implying an increase from $115 million reported in the prior-year period. The consensus mark for other revenues is pegged at $37.3 million, indicating a rise from $34 million in the prior-year quarter.
For the first quarter of 2026, Equinix projected revenues between $2.496 billion and $2.536 billion, implying around a 3-5% increase over the prior quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same stands at $2.51 billion, indicating an increase of 12.8% from the year-ago period’s reported figure.
EQIX estimated adjusted EBITDA in the range of $1.283-$1.323 billion for the first quarter.
EQIX’s activities during the to-be-reported period were adequate to garner analysts’ confidence. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly AFFO per share has been revised 9 cents upward to $10.89 over the past two months. It suggests a 12.6% increase from the prior-year quarter’s reported figure.
However, high interest expenses might have partly impeded the company’s quarterly performance.
What Our Quantitative Model Predicts for EQIX
Our proven model predicts a likely surprise in terms of AFFO per share for Equinix this season. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an AFFO beat, which is the case here.
Equinix currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.47% and a Zacks Rank of 2. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Stocks That Warrant a Look
Here are two stocks from the broader REIT industry — BXP, Inc. BXP and Cousins Properties CUZ — that you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to report a surprise this quarter.
BXP, scheduled to report quarterly numbers on April 28, has an Earnings ESP of +0.17% and a Zacks Rank of 3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Cousins Properties is slated to report quarterly numbers on April 29. CUZ has an Earnings ESP of +0.94% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.
Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.
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Equinix, Inc. (EQIX): Free Stock Analysis Report
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Cousins Properties Incorporated (CUZ): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).