Equinix To Link Australia, Singapore With Subsea Cable System

Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) has announced its plan to make Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) — owned by Vocus — available in its International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers in six metros of Australia as well as Singapore.

The project also includes Perth’s Cable Landing Station, along with points of presence in Sydney and Melbourne.

ASC, which is a 4,600-kilometer subsea cable, is going to be connecting Australia with Singapore. The interconnection and data-center REIT, Equinix expects this project to be completed and operational by the first quarter of fiscal year 2019.

This subsea cable network will help businesses to manage the growing data consumption, with lesser costs and latency. Further, connectivity between these locations will be enhanced, which in turn, will boost growth of businesses. Over 275 cloud providers and several service providers will be accessible to the customers.

Jeremy Deutsch, managing director of Equinix Australia informed, "Equinix is thrilled to be able to expand our customers' access to the new ASC across each of our metropolitan areas. This will in turn provide both cost and latency advantages when doing business with organizations across Southeast Asia."

Notably, with growth in cloud computing, Internet of Things and big data, and an increasing number of companies opting for third-party IT infrastructure; data-center REITs like Equinix and Digital Realty (NYSE:DLR) are experiencing a boom. Moreover, there is a significant surge in new subsea cable construction due to the exponential rise in data, resulting from web browsing and e-commerce to streaming video and artificial intelligence. In fact, total subsea cable bandwidth is projected to double by 2021. Equinix remains well poised to cater to this fast-increasing requirement for subsea cables by means of data-center design, partnerships as well as buyouts.

Nonetheless, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock have lost 9.5% over the past year against the industry’s decline of 4.9%.

Stocks to Consider

A few better-ranked stocks from the REIT space include LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO) and Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE:PK) . Both the stocks sport a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

LaSalle Hotel’s FFO per share estimates for 2018 have been revised upward marginally to $2.21 over the past month. The stock has gained 25.7% during the past six months.

Park Hotels & Resorts’ Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 FFO per share has been revised marginally upward to $2.73 over the past month. The stock has rallied 5.2% in six months’ time.

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.

5 Medical Stocks to Buy Now

Zacks names 5 companies poised to ride a medical breakthrough that is targeting cures for leukemia, AIDS, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, and other conditions.

New products in this field are already generating substantial revenue and even more wondrous treatments are in the pipeline. Early investors could realize exceptional profits.

Click here to see the 5 stocks >>

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX): Free Stock Analysis Report

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR): Free Stock Analysis Report

LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO): Free Stock Analysis Report

Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. (PK): Free Stock Analysis Report

Original post

Zacks Investment Research