Aviance Capital Partners LLC Has $999,000 Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,123 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 220 shares during the period. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $999,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Advisor Resource Council bought a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 3rd quarter worth $231,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 424,160 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $56,918,000 after acquiring an additional 13,702 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments bought a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 3rd quarter worth $218,000. Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,648 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $624,000 after acquiring an additional 1,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 3rd quarter worth $1,604,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.23.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $153.48 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.26 billion, a PE ratio of 32.31, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $154.98. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $146.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.43.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio 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.