StockNews.com Lowers Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) to Buy

StockNews.com lowered shares of Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Northcoast Research initiated coverage on shares of Deluxe in a research report on Friday, April 19th. They issued a buy rating and a $27.00 price target on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Deluxe from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th.

Deluxe Stock Down 0.8 %

Deluxe stock traded down $0.15 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $19.09. The stock had a trading volume of 213,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 233,096. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $22.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.06. Deluxe has a 12 month low of $16.00 and a 12 month high of $24.87. The stock has a market cap of $840.84 million, a P/E ratio of 24.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.29. Deluxe had a return on equity of 20.90% and a net margin of 1.78%. The business had revenue of $537.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $537.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Deluxe will post 2.92 EPS for the current year.

Deluxe Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 19th. Deluxe’s payout ratio is 155.84%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Barry C. Mccarthy acquired 2,440 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $21.63 per share, for a total transaction of $52,777.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,850 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,803,635.50. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 3,098 shares of company stock valued at $67,798. 4.23% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Deluxe

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Deluxe by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,167,850 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $106,406,000 after buying an additional 171,998 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Deluxe by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,750,481 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $37,548,000 after purchasing an additional 130,357 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance acquired a new position in shares of Deluxe during the fourth quarter valued at $1,152,000. Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of Deluxe during the first quarter valued at about $995,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in Deluxe by 2.4% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,090,671 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $43,047,000 after purchasing an additional 48,067 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

Deluxe Company Profile

Deluxe Corporation provides technology-enabled solutions to enterprises, small businesses, and financial institutions in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It operates through Merchant Services, B2B Payments, Data Solutions, and Print segments. The Merchant Services offers credit and debit card authorization and payment systems, as well as processing services primarily to small and medium-sized retail and service businesses.