Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Stock Position Trimmed by Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. decreased its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 10.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,880 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 770 shares during the period. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $965,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 38,655.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 799,907 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $107,340,000 after acquiring an additional 797,843 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Paychex by 3.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,278,142,000 after purchasing an additional 345,682 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Paychex by 2,404.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,391,000 after purchasing an additional 317,634 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA increased its position in shares of Paychex by 2,139.2% during the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $39,667,000 after purchasing an additional 282,487 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays raised 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Paychex has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.23.

Paychex Trading Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ PAYX opened at $144.75 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $142.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.89. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $150.71. The stock has a market cap of $52.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.47, a PEG ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 1.00.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly 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. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 82.53%.

Paychex 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.