New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 5,847 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 293,674 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 5,847 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Paychex were worth $41,179,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Paychex by 27.4% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 988,417 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $132,636,000 after acquiring an additional 212,700 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Paychex by 169.9% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,624 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,023,000 after purchasing an additional 4,799 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in Paychex by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 187,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,182,000 after purchasing an additional 4,157 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its position in Paychex by 91.1% in the 4th quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 10,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,515,000 after purchasing an additional 5,153 shares during the period. Finally, Amalgamated Bank grew its position in Paychex by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 70,347 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,440,000 after purchasing an additional 4,082 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on PAYX. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Paychex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $147.25 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $53.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 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. The company has a fifty day moving average of $143.27 and a 200 day moving average of $138.69. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $151.72.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during 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%. Paychex’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend 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.