Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY Invests $319,000 in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY purchased a new position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,090 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $319,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 4,359 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,276,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Acorn Creek Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Automatic Data Processing during the 4th quarter valued at $215,000. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Automatic Data Processing during the 4th quarter valued at $844,000. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 23,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,912,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 90,423 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,469,000 after buying an additional 7,210 shares during the last quarter. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADP has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen boosted their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. 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 note on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.91.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Maria Black sold 721 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.59, for a total transaction of $210,236.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 68,856 shares in the company, valued at $20,077,721.04. This trade represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 38,975 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $11,692,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 32,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,781,200. This represents a 54.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 42,129 shares of company stock worth $12,604,872 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Automatic Data Processing stock opened at $300.15 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $122.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a fifty day moving average of $297.13 and a 200 day moving average of $282.77. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $231.27 and a fifty-two week 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 company had revenue of $4.83 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is 65.74%.

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.