First Merchants Corp Sells 1,323 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

First Merchants Corp cut its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 50,227 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,323 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $11,989,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,769,440 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,932,020,000 after acquiring an additional 173,298 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,492,425 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,279,570,000 after purchasing an additional 249,566 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 2.3% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,625,186 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $905,354,000 after purchasing an additional 81,869 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 27.7% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,715,382 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $678,601,000 after purchasing an additional 589,831 shares during the period. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd raised its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 0.4% in the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 2,556,377 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $610,182,000 after purchasing an additional 9,464 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ADP. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $267.00 price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Bank of America increased their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $271.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $265.36.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

ADP stock traded up $0.22 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $269.60. The company had a trading volume of 1,206,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,658,561. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 1-year low of $205.53 and a 1-year high of $270.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $250.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $248.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $110.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.78.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.06 by $0.03. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.54% and a return on equity of 89.20%. The company had revenue of $4.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 10.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is presently 62.50%.

Automatic Data Processing 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.