Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Shares Sold by Bank of New York Mellon Corp

Bank of New York Mellon Corp decreased its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 10.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 9,465,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,116,794 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,327,193,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 46.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Paychex by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Paychex by 2,404.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,391,000 after acquiring an additional 317,634 shares during the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA lifted its position in Paychex by 2,139.2% during the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,667,000 after acquiring an additional 282,487 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 334.7% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 260,590 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,966,000 after purchasing an additional 200,640 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on PAYX shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Paychex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Performance

Paychex stock opened at $149.89 on Tuesday. Paychex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.72 and a 52 week high of $151.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market cap of $53.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $144.29 and a 200-day moving average of $139.99.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 82.53%.

About Paychex

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.