Dillon & Associates Inc. Sells 1,560 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Dillon & Associates Inc. lessened its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 52,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,560 shares during the period. Dillon & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $7,396,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in Paychex by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 30,548 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,099,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Paychex in the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its holdings in Paychex by 59.8% in the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 3,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $433,000 after buying an additional 1,206 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Paychex by 25.1% in the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 729,233 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $97,856,000 after buying an additional 146,421 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Paychex by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 359,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $48,288,000 after buying an additional 4,606 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.23.

Paychex Trading Down 1.5 %

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $143.02 on Monday. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $114.72 and a 12 month high of $158.37. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $147.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $142.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market capitalization of $51.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.11, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current 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 dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 82.53%.

Paychex 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.