1,540 Shares in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Bought by one8zero8 LLC

one8zero8 LLC acquired a new stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,540 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,775,365,000 after purchasing an additional 60,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Paychex by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,458,000 after acquiring an additional 519,761 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 valued at $1,262,700,000 after acquiring an additional 190,937 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Paychex by 46.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,649,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $231,295,000 after acquiring an additional 82,091 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $145.44 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market cap of $52.37 billion, a PE ratio of 30.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50 day moving average of $147.06 and a 200-day moving average of $142.26. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.72 and a 1-year high of $158.37.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.53%.

About Paychex

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.