Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 709 Shares of Deluxe Co. (NYSE:DLX)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System decreased its holdings in shares of Deluxe Co. (NYSE:DLX) by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 15,357 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 709 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Deluxe were worth $345,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DLX. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in Deluxe by 32.9% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 8,026 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $172,000 after acquiring an additional 1,985 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Deluxe by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 36,782 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $789,000 after acquiring an additional 1,253 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Deluxe by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 101,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,185,000 after acquiring an additional 12,199 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in Deluxe in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $245,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Deluxe by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,750,481 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $37,548,000 after acquiring an additional 130,357 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Deluxe from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Deluxe from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th.

Deluxe Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of DLX opened at $19.70 on Thursday. Deluxe Co. has a 1 year low of $16.00 and a 1 year high of $24.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.03. The stock has a market cap of $867.71 million, a PE ratio of 25.58, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.47.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.29. Deluxe had a return on equity of 20.90% and a net margin of 1.78%. The firm had revenue of $537.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $537.90 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Deluxe Co. will post 2.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Deluxe Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.09%. Deluxe’s dividend payout ratio is 155.84%.

Insider Activity at Deluxe

In other Deluxe news, CEO Barry C. Mccarthy purchased 2,440 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $21.63 per share, with a total value of $52,777.20. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,803,635.50. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Deluxe Profile

Deluxe Corporation provides technology-enabled solutions to enterprises, small businesses, and financial institutions in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It operates through Merchant Services, B2B Payments, Data Solutions, and Print segments. The Merchant Services offers credit and debit card authorization and payment systems, as well as processing services primarily to small and medium-sized retail and service businesses.