LPL Financial LLC Purchases 16,987 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 571,969 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,987 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $158,281,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 13.6% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 80,755 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $20,167,000 after buying an additional 9,653 shares during the last quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 8.4% during the first quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,445 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,859,000 after purchasing an additional 576 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 74.5% in the first quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 13,358 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,336,000 after purchasing an additional 5,701 shares in the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 40,303 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,065,000 after buying an additional 2,989 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 5,288 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,321,000 after buying an additional 844 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ADP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $271.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Automatic Data Processing presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $289.91.

Insider Transactions at Automatic Data Processing

In other news, VP Don Mcguire sold 3,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total transaction of $872,254.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 41,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,440,548.48. This represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael A. Bonarti sold 26,442 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 88,426 shares in the company, valued at $23,959,908.96. The trade was a 23.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 96,946 shares of company stock worth $27,462,781. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ADP stock opened at $305.15 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $289.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $265.87. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 12-month low of $227.12 and a 12-month high of $309.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $124.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79.

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

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $1.54 dividend. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This is a boost from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.74%.

Automatic Data Processing Company 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.