Cozad Asset Management Inc. Cuts Stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Cozad Asset Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,881 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 750 shares during the period. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $3,068,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.5% during 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 buying an additional 60,455 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Paychex by 5.5% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 519,761 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Paychex by 2.1% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 190,937 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Paychex by 46.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD grew its stake in Paychex by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,649,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $231,295,000 after purchasing an additional 82,091 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAYX has been the topic of several analyst reports. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.23.

Paychex Trading Up 1.3 %

Paychex stock opened at $145.44 on Monday. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.72 and a 52 week high of $158.37. The company has a market capitalization of $52.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $147.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $142.26.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. The company’s revenue 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 Announces Dividend

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

Paychex 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.