Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp Lowers Holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lessened its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 160,877 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,540 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $44,519,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. bought a new position in Automatic Data Processing in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Dunhill Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 346.5% during the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 106 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 78.5% during the 3rd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 116 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 3rd quarter worth $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group increased their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $270.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Performance

NASDAQ ADP opened at $298.75 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $296.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $271.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company has a market cap of $121.73 billion, a PE ratio of 31.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.79. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.12 and a 1-year high of $309.63.

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

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. This is an increase from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Automatic Data Processing

In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 38,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $11,692,500.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 32,604 shares in the company, valued at $9,781,200. This represents a 54.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Automatic Data Processing Company Profile

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.