Shoker Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 104 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Shoker Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 24,039 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Paychex comprises approximately 1.1% of Shoker Investment Counsel Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Shoker Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $3,371,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. State Street Corp boosted its position in Paychex by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,775,365,000 after acquiring an additional 60,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 345,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,262,700,000 after purchasing an additional 190,937 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD grew its stake in Paychex by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,649,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $231,295,000 after purchasing an additional 82,091 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Paychex Stock Down 0.3 %

Paychex stock opened at $148.76 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $144.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $140.30. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.72 and a 1-year high of $151.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 82.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.