Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Sector Perform” Rating for Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $130.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 9.65% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $118.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.62.

Paychex Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $118.56 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $42.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.96. Paychex has a 52 week low of $106.27 and a 52 week high of $129.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $122.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 46.63%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Paychex will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 19,709 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,454,755.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,383 shares in the company, valued at approximately $670,452.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 11.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Paychex during the 4th quarter worth $214,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 80.2% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 343,269 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $40,887,000 after acquiring an additional 152,818 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 366.5% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 20,863 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,485,000 after acquiring an additional 16,391 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Paychex during the 4th quarter worth $1,229,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 218.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 680,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $80,794,000 after acquiring an additional 466,890 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Paychex

Paychex, Inc provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, and insurance services for small to medium-sized businesses in the United States, Europe, and India. It offers payroll processing services; payroll tax administration services; employee payment services; and regulatory compliance services, such as new-hire reporting and garnishment processing.