SBI Securities Co. Ltd. Invests $73,000 in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 522 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $73,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Paychex by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 424,160 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $56,918,000 after acquiring an additional 13,702 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments purchased a new position in Paychex during the third quarter valued at $218,000. Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Paychex by 47.5% in the third quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,648 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $624,000 after purchasing an additional 1,497 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex during the third quarter worth about $1,604,000. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Paychex by 57.6% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,637 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 4,617 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on PAYX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays increased their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Paychex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.23.

Paychex Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $153.48 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $154.98. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $146.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.64. The stock has a market cap of $55.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. Paychex’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.