Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,805 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 280 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,821,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in Paychex by 120.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 6,936 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $973,000 after purchasing an additional 3,783 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 15.1% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,419 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $990,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the period. Tallon Kerry Patrick purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex in the fourth quarter valued at $2,419,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 581,529 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $81,542,000 after acquiring an additional 23,359 shares during the period. Finally, Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 10,843 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,520,000 after acquiring an additional 4,239 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAYX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Cfra Research raised shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $142.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Paychex news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total transaction of $544,762.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 78,455 shares in the company, valued at $11,709,408.75. This represents a 4.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Paychex Trading Down 0.8%

NASDAQ PAYX opened at $152.52 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $151.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $147.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market cap of $54.94 billion, a PE ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.92. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.40 and a 12 month high of $161.24.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a net margin of 31.99% and a return on equity of 45.30%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $1.08 per share. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.83%. This is a boost from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 90.00%.

Paychex Company 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.