Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Shares Acquired by Valmark Advisers Inc.

Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 7.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,149 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 723 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,423,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 38,655.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 799,907 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $107,340,000 after purchasing an additional 797,843 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,278,142,000 after purchasing an additional 345,682 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 2,404.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,391,000 after purchasing an additional 317,634 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 2,139.2% in the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $39,667,000 after purchasing an additional 282,487 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PAYX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $147.25 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $53.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $143.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $138.91. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.72 and a 1-year high of $151.72. 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 earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend 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.