Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC Reduces Stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 14,319 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 252 shares during the quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,921,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PAYX. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Paychex by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,775,365,000 after purchasing an additional 60,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 3.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,278,142,000 after buying an additional 345,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,262,700,000 after buying an additional 190,937 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 46.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,649,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $231,295,000 after purchasing an additional 82,091 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $144.75 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $52.12 billion, a PE ratio of 30.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $142.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.89. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $114.72 and a one year high of $150.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. Paychex’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. Research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PAYX. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays lifted their target price on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Paychex from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.23.

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.