Barclays Trims Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Target Price to $118.00

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) had its price target lowered by Barclays from $120.00 to $118.00 in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a sector perform rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Wedbush restated a neutral rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an in-line rating and issued a $118.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $122.46.

Paychex Trading Down 0.8 %

Paychex stock opened at $117.43 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $122.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.37. Paychex has a one year low of $106.27 and a one year high of $129.70. The stock has a market cap of $42.27 billion, a PE ratio of 25.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.00.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 32.03%. The company had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Paychex will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th were issued a $0.98 dividend. This is a positive change from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 9th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paychex

In other Paychex news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 19,709 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,454,755.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,383 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $670,452.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Paychex news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 19,709 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,454,755.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,383 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $670,452.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 101,490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.27, for a total value of $11,901,732.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 437,345 shares in the company, valued at $51,287,448.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Paychex by 12.8% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,878,283 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,563,853,000 after buying an additional 2,373,894 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Paychex by 155.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,478,325 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $304,338,000 after buying an additional 1,508,681 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Paychex during the first quarter worth approximately $146,617,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Paychex by 229.8% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,630,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $188,655,000 after buying an additional 1,136,456 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Paychex by 57.2% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,179,930 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $267,695,000 after buying an additional 793,468 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Paychex Company Profile

Paychex, Inc provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, 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.