Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY Acquires 58 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY grew its holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 2.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,297 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $636,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ADP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Automatic Data Processing by 70.7% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 638,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $152,405,000 after buying an additional 264,466 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 23.8% during the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 26,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,352,000 after purchasing an additional 5,114 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Automatic Data Processing during the third quarter valued at approximately $209,000. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 2,917.1% in the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 4,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $997,000 after purchasing an additional 4,084 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RIA Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Automatic Data Processing in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $470,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays raised their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

NASDAQ:ADP opened at $306.93 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 52 week low of $227.12 and a 52 week high of $309.63. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $292.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $268.30. The stock has a market cap of $125.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.79.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.72% and a return on equity of 82.36%. The company had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.08 earnings per share. Automatic Data Processing’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $1.54 dividend. This is an increase from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is currently 59.77%.

Insider Activity at Automatic Data Processing

In other Automatic Data Processing news, CEO Maria Black sold 19,147 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total value of $5,253,553.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,807 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,464,384.66. This trade represents a 17.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 38,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $11,692,500.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 32,604 shares in the company, valued at $9,781,200. This represents a 54.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 70,504 shares of company stock valued at $20,298,056. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Automatic Data Processing Company Profile

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.