Brokers Offer Predictions for Paychex, Inc.’s Q1 2026 Earnings (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) – Equities researchers at William Blair upped their Q1 2026 earnings estimates for shares of Paychex in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, October 2nd. William Blair analyst A. Nicholas now anticipates that the business services provider will post earnings of $1.22 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $1.20. The consensus estimate for Paychex’s current full-year earnings is $4.99 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Paychex’s Q4 2026 earnings at $1.29 EPS.

PAYX has been the topic of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $130.77.

Paychex Price Performance

Paychex stock opened at $138.65 on Friday. Paychex has a 52 week low of $106.27 and a 52 week high of $142.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $130.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.91 billion, a PE ratio of 29.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.00.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The business services provider reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 46.63%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.14 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 8th were issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.83%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 83.94%.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In other news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 14,434 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $1,807,281.14. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,383 shares in the company, valued at $674,005.43. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 14,434 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $1,807,281.14. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,383 shares in the company, valued at $674,005.43. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.53, for a total transaction of $1,514,445.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 55,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,663,199.85. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 45,673 shares of company stock worth $5,636,085. Company insiders own 11.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in Paychex by 8.3% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 61,049 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,238,000 after purchasing an additional 4,703 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Paychex in the fourth quarter worth $1,400,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Paychex by 85.1% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,259,393 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $154,263,000 after purchasing an additional 579,136 shares during the period. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. acquired a new position in Paychex in the fourth quarter worth $23,330,000. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in Paychex in the fourth quarter worth $774,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

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.