Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Stock Position Raised by Candriam S.C.A.

Candriam S.C.A. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 16.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 37,127 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,293 shares during the quarter. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $5,206,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 2.3% in the third quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 187,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,182,000 after purchasing an additional 4,157 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 91.1% in the fourth quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 10,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,515,000 after purchasing an additional 5,153 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 6.5% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 329,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $44,159,000 after purchasing an additional 20,064 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 151.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,761 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,310,000 after purchasing an additional 5,872 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex during the third quarter worth $3,351,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Paychex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $133.23.

Paychex Trading Up 2.4 %

Paychex stock opened at $153.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $55.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $114.72 and a one year high of $154.98. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $146.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $141.54.

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

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.