Brokerages Set Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Price Target at $131.62

Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the thirteen analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and eleven have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $132.23.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paychex

In other Paychex news, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total transaction of $1,852,685.25. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 17,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,471,480.70. This trade represents a 42.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 14,731 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.18, for a total value of $2,050,260.58. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 14,515 shares in the company, valued at $2,020,197.70. This trade represents a 50.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 54,174 shares of company stock worth $7,577,231 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 51.1% in the second quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,561 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,205 shares during the period. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp acquired a new stake in Paychex during the 2nd quarter worth $570,000. Optas LLC grew its position in Paychex by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Optas LLC now owns 2,441 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $289,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Access Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in Paychex by 2.7% in the second quarter. Access Financial Services Inc. now owns 13,033 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,545,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the period. Finally, AMG National Trust Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex in the second quarter valued at about $308,000. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Paychex Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of PAYX opened at $141.39 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $142.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $132.90. Paychex has a 12-month low of $114.72 and a 12-month high of $150.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $50.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.99.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 31.98% and a return on equity of 45.97%. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Paychex will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.53%.

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.