Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL Lowers Stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL lowered its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,650 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL’s holdings in Paychex were worth $372,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Paychex by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 424,160 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $56,918,000 after purchasing an additional 13,702 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments purchased a new position in Paychex in the 3rd quarter worth $218,000. Leavell Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Paychex by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,648 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $624,000 after purchasing an additional 1,497 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Paychex in the 3rd quarter worth $1,604,000. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Paychex by 57.6% in the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,637 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 4,617 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAYX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. 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 report on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Paychex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.23.

Paychex Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of PAYX opened at $153.48 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $146.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.54. The firm 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. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.72 and a 1-year high of $154.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.