Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Analysts

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) has received an average rating of “Reduce” from the twelve analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and ten have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $122.62.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Paychex from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Paychex from $120.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Thursday, June 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paychex

In other Paychex news, VP Mark Anthony Bottini sold 8,954 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $1,106,714.40. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 79,232 shares in the company, valued at $9,793,075.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 14,434 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $1,807,281.14. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,383 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $674,005.43. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Mark Anthony Bottini sold 8,954 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $1,106,714.40. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 79,232 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,793,075.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 147,163 shares of company stock worth $17,537,817 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,541,306 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,750,472,000 after buying an additional 123,268 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 12.8% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,878,283 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,563,853,000 after buying an additional 2,373,894 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,687,859 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $320,151,000 after buying an additional 56,793 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 2,548,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $303,492,000 after buying an additional 623,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its stake in Paychex by 155.6% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,478,325 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $304,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,508,681 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $130.00 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $123.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.52. Paychex has a 52-week low of $106.27 and a 52-week high of $130.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.82 billion, a PE ratio of 27.84, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.00.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 32.03%. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Paychex will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 8th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.02%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.94%.

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.