NEOS Investment Management LLC Acquires 7,608 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

NEOS Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 23.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 40,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,608 shares during the quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $5,694,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Paychex by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,521,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,419,878,000 after acquiring an additional 174,817 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 60,455 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,408,458,000 after purchasing an additional 519,761 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 190,937 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in Paychex by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Paychex Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $151.83 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.72 and a 1 year high of $158.37. The company has a market capitalization of $54.67 billion, a PE ratio of 31.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $148.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $143.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. Paychex’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.38 EPS. Analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current 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 was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 81.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on PAYX. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays upped their target price 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.58.

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.