Darwin Wealth Management LLC Invests $85,000 in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 634 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $85,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Paychex by 21.7% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 20,596 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,529,000 after acquiring an additional 3,677 shares during the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex during the first quarter valued at approximately $346,000. MQS Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex during the first quarter valued at approximately $331,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC increased its position in Paychex by 138.3% in the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 6,384 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $784,000 after buying an additional 3,705 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Paychex by 1.9% in the first quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 32,292 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,965,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on PAYX shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Paychex from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.62.

Paychex Stock Performance

Paychex stock opened at $141.83 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $139.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $129.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.38. The stock has a market cap of $51.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.24, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.99. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $150.71.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The business services provider reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.97% and a net margin of 31.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 83.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Paychex news, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 26,428 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.03, for a total transaction of $3,674,284.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,018,020.45. The trade was a 64.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total transaction of $1,852,685.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 17,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,471,480.70. This represents a 42.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 54,174 shares of company stock worth $7,577,231 in the last three months. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

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.