Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Position Reduced by First National Advisers LLC

First National Advisers LLC cut its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 13.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,715 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,184 shares during the quarter. First National Advisers LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 13.2% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,435 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $998,000 after purchasing an additional 867 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 1.4% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 99,970 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,415,000 after purchasing an additional 1,424 shares in the last quarter. Veery Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex in the third quarter worth approximately $207,000. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex in the third quarter worth approximately $465,000. Finally, Adero Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 3.7% in the third quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 2,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PAYX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. 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. Barclays increased their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.23.

Paychex Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $145.44 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $147.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $142.26. The company has a market cap of $52.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.62, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.72 and a 1 year high of $158.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. Paychex’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders 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 2.70%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

About Paychex

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.