Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Updates FY 2025 Earnings Guidance

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) updated its FY 2025 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 4.960-5.050 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 4.980. The company issued revenue guidance of $5.5 billion-$5.6 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $5.5 billion. Paychex also updated its FY25 guidance to $4.96-5.05 EPS.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAYX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Paychex from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. TD Cowen raised their target price on Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Paychex from $118.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.62.

Paychex Price Performance

PAYX traded up $3.36 during trading on Thursday, reaching $139.22. 1,113,879 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,787,323. Paychex has a 12-month low of $114.72 and a 12-month high of $150.71. The company’s 50-day moving average is $142.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $132.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a market cap of $50.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.99.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced 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. 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 prior year, the business posted $1.08 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Paychex will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is 83.58%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 26,428 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.03, for a total value of $3,674,284.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,018,020.45. This represents a 64.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 54,174 shares of company stock worth $7,577,231 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

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.