Guardian Capital Advisors LP Buys 67 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Guardian Capital Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 3.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,117 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the quarter. Guardian Capital Advisors LP’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ADP. Norges Bank bought a new position in Automatic Data Processing during the fourth quarter worth about $308,321,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 22,539.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 934,326 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $217,670,000 after buying an additional 930,199 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 22.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,543,317 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $825,487,000 after buying an additional 649,791 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 27.7% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,715,382 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $678,601,000 after buying an additional 589,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,596,142 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,224,713,000 after purchasing an additional 412,434 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $254.00 to $250.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com cut Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $253.00 to $251.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $255.00.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Up 1.2 %

Automatic Data Processing stock traded up $3.09 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $252.67. The stock had a trading volume of 1,449,554 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,451,799. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $244.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $244.99. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 1-year low of $205.53 and a 1-year high of $256.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $103.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $2.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.79 by $0.09. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 93.09% and a net margin of 19.56%. The business had revenue of $5.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.52 EPS. Automatic Data Processing’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Automatic Data Processing

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.