Stephens Inc. AR Buys 5,579 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Stephens Inc. AR boosted its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 5.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 108,666 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,579 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Paychex were worth $14,582,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. United Asset Strategies Inc. boosted its position in Paychex by 4.6% during the third quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 17,099 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,295,000 after purchasing an additional 747 shares in the last quarter. Nikulski Financial Inc. boosted its position in Paychex by 7.8% during the third quarter. Nikulski Financial Inc. now owns 1,935 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. boosted its position in Paychex by 13.6% during the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 5,024 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $674,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC acquired a new stake in Paychex in the third quarter worth about $225,000. Finally, Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its holdings in Paychex by 9.1% in the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 13,448 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,805,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PAYX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price target on Paychex from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Paychex from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Paychex from $122.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.77.

Paychex Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $139.09 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $136.31 and a 200 day moving average of $127.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market cap of $50.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.00. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $108.58 and a twelve month high of $144.17.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The business services provider reported $1.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.97% and a net margin of 31.98%. Paychex’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.14 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.98 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.58%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 26,428 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.03, for a total value of $3,674,284.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,515 shares in the company, valued at $2,018,020.45. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 26,428 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.03, for a total value of $3,674,284.84. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,018,020.45. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total value of $1,852,685.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,362 shares in the company, valued at $2,471,480.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 68,608 shares of company stock worth $9,384,512 over the last three months. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Paychex

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.