Norges Bank Invests $78.22 Million in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 557,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $78,215,000. Norges Bank owned 0.15% of Paychex as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,521,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,419,878,000 after purchasing an additional 174,817 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,775,365,000 after buying an additional 60,455 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,458,000 after buying an additional 519,761 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Paychex by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,262,700,000 after acquiring an additional 190,937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on PAYX. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Cfra Research raised Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays lifted their target price on Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Paychex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $138.83.

Paychex Price Performance

PAYX stock opened at $154.94 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $148.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $143.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market cap of $55.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.62, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.40 and a fifty-two week high of $158.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The company’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.38 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 81.67%.

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.