Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) PT Lowered to $118.00 at Barclays

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) had its price objective trimmed by Barclays from $120.00 to $118.00 in a report released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America upped their target price on Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an in-line rating and set a $118.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Wedbush reissued a neutral rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $122.46.

Paychex Trading Down 1.3 %

Paychex stock opened at $117.00 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Paychex has a 12 month low of $106.27 and a 12 month high of $129.70. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $121.90. The firm has a market cap of $42.12 billion, a PE ratio of 25.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.00.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 32.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Paychex will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th were paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 9th. This is an increase from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.35%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Paychex news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 19,709 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,454,755.95. Following the completion of the sale, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 11.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 240,449 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $27,731,000 after purchasing an additional 66,802 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 229.8% during the 3rd 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 period. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 24.0% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 35,147 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,054,000 after purchasing an additional 6,810 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 67.4% during the 3rd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 309,046 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $35,642,000 after purchasing an additional 124,400 shares during the period. Finally, Elevatus Welath Management grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Elevatus Welath Management now owns 22,660 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,613,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Paychex

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.