Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 114,379 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC reduced its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 34.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 222,045 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 114,379 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $31,135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Marino Stram & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 6,520 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $914,000 after buying an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex during the fourth quarter worth about $273,000. Simon Quick Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $777,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. White Pine Investment CO boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. White Pine Investment CO now owns 25,087 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,518,000 after purchasing an additional 761 shares during the period. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 327,525 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $45,926,000 after purchasing an additional 48,965 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. 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. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.23.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $144.75 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $150.71. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $142.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.89. The company has a market capitalization of $52.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.