Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Receives $122.62 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the twelve analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and ten have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $123.00.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 27th.

Paychex Price Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $135.09 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $126.36 and a 200-day moving average of $123.41. The company has a market capitalization of $48.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.93, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.00. Paychex has a 52 week low of $106.27 and a 52 week high of $136.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 46.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Paychex will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 8th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 83.94%.

Insider Transactions at Paychex

In other news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 9,615 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.60, for a total transaction of $1,207,644.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,383 shares in the company, valued at approximately $676,104.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 101,490 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were 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 owns 437,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,287,448.15. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 9,615 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.60, for a total transaction of $1,207,644.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,383 shares in the company, valued at approximately $676,104.80. 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 quarter. 11.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Paychex by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,541,306 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,750,472,000 after buying an additional 123,268 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 12.8% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,878,283 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,563,853,000 after purchasing an additional 2,373,894 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,687,859 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $320,151,000 after purchasing an additional 56,793 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 2,548,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $303,492,000 after purchasing an additional 623,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 155.6% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,478,325 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $304,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,508,681 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

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.