Brookstone Capital Management Purchases 661 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Brookstone Capital Management raised its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 37.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,418 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 661 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Paychex were worth $297,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PAYX. Capital International Investors increased its position in Paychex by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 18,504,389 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,204,115,000 after acquiring an additional 1,523,520 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Paychex in the first quarter worth about $146,617,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 229.8% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,630,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $188,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136,456 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors bought a new position in shares of Paychex in the fourth quarter worth about $115,494,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 123.5% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,386,462 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $165,141,000 after purchasing an additional 766,252 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on PAYX. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a report on Thursday, June 27th. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued 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 $122.46.

Paychex Stock Performance

PAYX stock opened at $118.38 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $42.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.24, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $121.84. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $106.27 and a one year high of $129.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 business 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 quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th were given a $0.98 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.94%.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In related news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 19,709 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,454,755.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,383 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $670,452.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 11.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.