Level Four Advisory Services LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Level Four Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,595 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 250 shares during the quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $504,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Vertex Planning Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Paychex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 33.8% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 241,764 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $33,900,000 after purchasing an additional 61,123 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 581,529 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $81,542,000 after purchasing an additional 23,359 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 46,254.4% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 57,943 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,125,000 after purchasing an additional 57,818 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex in the fourth quarter valued at $78,215,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on PAYX shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $138.83.

Paychex Trading Up 2.2 %

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $154.28 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $148.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $143.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.55 billion, a PE ratio of 32.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $114.72 and a 12 month high of $158.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.38 EPS. Research analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 81.67%.

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.