Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 62,411 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Prudential Financial Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 26.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 170,164 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 62,411 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $23,860,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 18,832 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,641,000 after purchasing an additional 1,567 shares in the last quarter. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Paychex in the fourth quarter valued at about $68,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,521,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,419,878,000 after purchasing an additional 174,817 shares in the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Paychex during the fourth quarter worth about $493,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 795,866 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $111,596,000 after buying an additional 66,633 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on PAYX shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.50.

Paychex Stock Up 4.2 %

PAYX opened at $150.19 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $54.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.62, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50-day moving average is $148.03 and its 200 day moving average is $143.04. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $158.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.38 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 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.