Hopwood Financial Services Inc. Buys Shares of 600 Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Hopwood Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 600 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $84,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in Paychex by 2.3% in the third quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 187,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,182,000 after buying an additional 4,157 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC increased its position in Paychex by 91.1% in the fourth quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 10,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,515,000 after buying an additional 5,153 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex in the third quarter worth about $3,351,000. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in Paychex by 6.5% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 329,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $44,159,000 after buying an additional 20,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Paychex by 151.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,761 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,310,000 after buying an additional 5,872 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAYX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price target on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays increased their target price on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $133.23.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ PAYX opened at $145.01 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.21 billion, a PE ratio of 30.53, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $146.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $141.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.72 and a 1-year high of $158.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released 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 return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is 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.