Buck Wealth Strategies LLC Trims Stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Buck Wealth Strategies LLC cut its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 91.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,109 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 51,483 shares during the quarter. Buck Wealth Strategies LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $606,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Paychex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,812,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Paychex by 1,171.7% during the fourth quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $289,000 after acquiring an additional 2,238 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 82,955 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,880,000 after acquiring an additional 10,143 shares in the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC boosted its holdings in Paychex by 226.6% in the fourth quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 28,219 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,361,000 after purchasing an additional 19,578 shares during the period. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in Paychex by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 542,669 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $64,637,000 after purchasing an additional 18,279 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on PAYX shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Paychex from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $125.62.

Paychex Price Performance

PAYX opened at $132.99 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $106.27 and a one year high of $137.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $128.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.24.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly 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 return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 32.03%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 83.94%.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In other Paychex news, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 101,490 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.27, for a total value of $11,901,732.30. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 437,345 shares in the company, valued at $51,287,448.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Paychex news, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 101,490 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.27, for a total transaction of $11,901,732.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 437,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,287,448.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.53, for a total value of $1,514,445.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 55,745 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,663,199.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 147,163 shares of company stock worth $17,537,817 in the last 90 days. 11.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Paychex Profile

Paychex, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated human capital management solutions (HCM) for payroll, benefits, human resources (HR), 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.