Cullinan Associates Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Cullinan Associates Inc. lowered its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 43.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,636 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,264 shares during the period. Cullinan Associates Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Paychex by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,775,365,000 after buying an additional 60,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Paychex by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,278,142,000 after buying an additional 345,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Paychex by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,262,700,000 after buying an additional 190,937 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Paychex by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its stake in Paychex by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,649,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $231,295,000 after purchasing an additional 82,091 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on PAYX. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.23.

Paychex Price Performance

Paychex stock opened at $149.51 on Wednesday. Paychex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $114.72 and a 52-week high of $150.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.48, a PEG ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $142.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

Paychex Company 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.