Financial Counselors Inc. Purchases 264 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Financial Counselors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 2.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 12,285 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 264 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $3,400,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 12.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,065,308 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $964,989,000 after purchasing an additional 435,093 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Automatic Data Processing by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,548,165 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $846,912,000 after buying an additional 139,561 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Automatic Data Processing by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,238,526 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $896,197,000 after buying an additional 41,709 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 2,556,377 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $610,182,000 after acquiring an additional 9,464 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Accredited Investors Inc. boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 4,431.5% during the 3rd quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 2,315,295 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $640,712,000 after acquiring an additional 2,264,202 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ADP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $270.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Automatic Data Processing has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 0.0 %

Automatic Data Processing stock opened at $306.93 on Friday. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.12 and a 12 month high of $309.63. The company has a market capitalization of $125.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.79. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $292.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $267.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $4.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.72% and a return on equity of 82.36%. Automatic Data Processing’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.08 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $1.54 dividend. This is a positive change from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is presently 59.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Automatic Data Processing

In other news, VP Don Mcguire sold 3,179 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total value of $872,254.02. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 41,696 shares in the company, valued at $11,440,548.48. The trade was a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Carlos A. Rodriguez sold 9,203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.45, for a total transaction of $2,479,748.35. Following the transaction, the director now owns 36,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,899,862.45. This trade represents a 20.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 70,504 shares of company stock worth $20,298,056. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

About Automatic Data Processing

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.