Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Shares Sold by Successful Portfolios LLC

Successful Portfolios LLC decreased its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,269 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 114 shares during the quarter. Successful Portfolios LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $401,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Synovus Financial Corp raised its holdings in Paychex by 1.4% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 11,603 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in Paychex by 5.5% during the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 72,812 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,397,000 after purchasing an additional 3,803 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Paychex by 159.8% during the third quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 173,951 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $20,062,000 after purchasing an additional 106,997 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in Paychex by 0.8% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 101,678 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,727,000 after purchasing an additional 764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Paychex during the third quarter worth approximately $833,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on PAYX. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Thursday. Wedbush restated 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 target price on shares of Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two research 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 company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.62.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $118.56 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $122.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $121.90. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $106.27 and a 1-year high of $129.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.24. 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 3.14 and a beta of 1.00.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.30 billion for 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 business’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th were given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This is a positive change from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 9th. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 83.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Paychex 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 sale, the director now directly owns 5,383 shares in the company, valued at approximately $670,452.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 11.50% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Company Profile

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.