Tower Bridge Advisors Cuts Stock Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Tower Bridge Advisors trimmed its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 6.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 425 shares during the quarter. Tower Bridge Advisors’ holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $1,856,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tower Wealth Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 3.4% during the third quarter. Tower Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 1,054 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 2.1% during the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 0.4% during the third quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,902,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 0.7% during the second quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 5,698 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,360,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Finally, Austin Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 4.4% during the third quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 923 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Automatic Data Processing

In related news, VP Don Mcguire sold 3,179 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total value of $872,254.02. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 41,696 shares in the company, valued at $11,440,548.48. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael A. Bonarti sold 26,442 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.96, for a total transaction of $7,164,724.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 88,426 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,959,908.96. This trade represents a 23.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 97,792 shares of company stock worth $27,691,708 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

ADP stock opened at $297.64 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $121.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.77, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a twelve month low of $227.12 and a twelve month high of $309.37. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $287.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $264.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.08 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $1.54 dividend. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. This is a positive change from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.77%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $271.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Profile

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.