Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.38 earnings per share. Paychex updated its FY25 guidance to $4.96-5.05 EPS and its FY 2025 guidance to 4.960-5.050 EPS.

Paychex Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $151.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $148.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.10. The stock has a market cap of $54.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.96, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex has a 1-year low of $114.72 and a 1-year high of $158.37.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.58%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 81.67%.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Paychex stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 26.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,710 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,190 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $801,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAYX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.58.

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.