Monumental Financial Group Inc. Sells 309 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Monumental Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,504 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 309 shares during the period. Monumental Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,167,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Paychex by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,418,038 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,623,093,000 after buying an additional 487,031 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Paychex by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 18,504,389 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,204,115,000 after buying an additional 1,523,520 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Paychex by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,598,560 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $415,022,000 after buying an additional 182,648 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Paychex by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,687,859 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $320,151,000 after buying an additional 56,793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd grew its stake in Paychex by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 2,548,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $303,492,000 after buying an additional 623,000 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PAYX. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America upped their price target on Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Paychex from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two equities research 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.com, Paychex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.62.

Paychex Trading Up 0.6 %

Paychex stock traded up $0.72 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $118.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,556,909 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,064,830. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.68 billion, a PE ratio of 25.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.96. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $106.27 and a 1 year high of $129.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $122.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 32.03%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.98 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th were given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.31%. This is a positive change from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 9th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 83.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 19,709 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,454,755.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,383 shares in the company, valued at $670,452.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 11.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Paychex

Paychex, Inc provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, 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.