Empowered Funds LLC Reduces Stock Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Empowered Funds LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 75.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,952 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 64,518 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $2,938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. Magnus Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Paychex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $251,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in Paychex by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 11,319 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,519,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 33,186 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,453,000 after buying an additional 2,080 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 31.2% in the 3rd quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $556,000 after buying an additional 986 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Inlet Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 205.5% in the 3rd quarter. Inlet Private Wealth LLC now owns 25,355 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,402,000 after buying an additional 17,055 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PAYX. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $132.23.

Paychex Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of PAYX opened at $148.63 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.29, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $143.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $138.62. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $151.72.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 82.53%.

About Paychex

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.