SG Americas Securities LLC Cuts Stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

SG Americas Securities LLC lessened its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 84.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,949 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 101,506 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $2,657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Marino Stram & Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Paychex by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 6,520 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $914,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC bought a new position in Paychex during the fourth quarter valued at $273,000. Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Paychex by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $777,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. White Pine Investment CO raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. White Pine Investment CO now owns 25,087 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,518,000 after buying an additional 761 shares during the period. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 327,525 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $45,926,000 after buying an additional 48,965 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PAYX. Barclays boosted their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target 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. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Performance

Paychex stock opened at $146.11 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $150.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $142.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $136.16. The stock has a market cap of $52.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39.

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

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 82.53%.

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.