Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Shares Sold by Advisors Asset Management Inc.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 5.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 104,532 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 6,371 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $14,657,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Paychex in the fourth quarter valued at $184,216,000. Amundi lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 77.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,534,145 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $215,164,000 after buying an additional 672,010 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Paychex by 30,382.8% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 568,809 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $79,758,000 after purchasing an additional 566,943 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Paychex by 46.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,408,458,000 after buying an additional 519,761 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on PAYX. Barclays lifted their target price 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 restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.23.

Paychex Price Performance

PAYX opened at $147.99 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $147.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $142.39. Paychex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $114.72 and a 52-week high of $158.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.16, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.65%. 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.