Calamos Advisors LLC Has $12 Million Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Calamos Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 100,750 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,316 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $12,000,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,931,007 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,451,943,000 after purchasing an additional 170,453 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Paychex by 8.9% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,331,387 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,306,849,000 after buying an additional 927,584 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Paychex by 0.8% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,982,029 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $913,599,000 after buying an additional 62,739 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Paychex by 2.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,797,671 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $783,975,000 after buying an additional 178,316 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Paychex by 102,768.9% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,537,548 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $524,359,000 after buying an additional 4,533,137 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Paychex news, VP Mark Anthony Bottini sold 15,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.53, for a total value of $1,865,924.93. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 82,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,966,625.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Paychex Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $119.52 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $122.03 and a 200-day moving average of $120.18. The company has a market cap of $43.02 billion, a PE ratio of 26.04, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.93. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $104.09 and a one year high of $129.70.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 2nd. The business services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 31.86% and a return on equity of 46.14%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Friday, January 19th that permits the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on PAYX shares. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $134.00 to $126.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.00.

About Paychex

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.