Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Acquires Shares of 8,853 Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 8,853 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,241,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Paychex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $184,216,000. Amundi lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 77.9% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,534,145 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $215,164,000 after acquiring an additional 672,010 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 30,382.8% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 568,809 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $79,758,000 after acquiring an additional 566,943 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 46.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Paychex by 5.5% during the fourth 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAYX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $133.23.

Paychex Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $147.53 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $147.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $142.53. The company has a market capitalization of $53.12 billion, a PE ratio of 31.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $114.72 and a 12-month high of $158.37. 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 posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. Paychex’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 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.