MWA Asset Management Has $682,000 Stake in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

MWA Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,464 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the quarter. MWA Asset Management’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $682,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 70.7% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 638,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $152,405,000 after purchasing an additional 264,466 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 1.7% in the first quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 247,474 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $61,804,000 after buying an additional 4,253 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 23.8% in the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 26,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,352,000 after buying an additional 5,114 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Automatic Data Processing during the 3rd quarter worth about $209,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC increased its position in Automatic Data Processing by 2,917.1% in the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 4,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $997,000 after acquiring an additional 4,084 shares in the last quarter. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ADP. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $271.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America lifted their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $270.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Down 0.1 %

Automatic Data Processing stock opened at $297.54 on Wednesday. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $227.12 and a fifty-two week high of $309.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $121.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.75, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $288.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $264.93.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.77 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.72% and a return on equity of 82.36%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.08 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. This is a positive change from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.77%.

Insider Activity

In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP David Kwon sold 846 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.60, for a total value of $228,927.60. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 10,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,816,946. This trade represents a 7.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael A. Bonarti sold 26,442 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.96, for a total value of $7,164,724.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 88,426 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,959,908.96. This represents a 23.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 97,792 shares of company stock worth $27,691,708 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

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.