Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Sells 1,666 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS trimmed its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 68,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,666 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Paychex were worth $9,550,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 2.3% during 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 buying an additional 4,157 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 91.1% during the 4th quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 10,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,515,000 after buying an additional 5,153 shares during the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Paychex during the 3rd quarter worth $3,351,000. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 329,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $44,159,000 after buying an additional 20,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 997,930 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $142,055,000 after buying an additional 27,296 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.23.

Paychex Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $143.02 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $51.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.11, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $147.77 and a 200-day moving average of $142.63. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.72 and a 1-year high of $158.37.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.74%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 82.53%.

Paychex Company 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.