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

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) has received a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and eleven have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $131.62.

PAYX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $118.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Paychex Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $145.71 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.44 billion, a PE ratio of 31.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.99. 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’s 50 day moving average is $140.87 and its 200 day moving average is $130.48. Paychex has a 1 year low of $114.72 and a 1 year high of $150.71.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The business services provider reported $1.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 31.98% and a return on equity of 45.97%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Paychex will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 83.58%.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In other Paychex news, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 26,428 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.03, for a total transaction of $3,674,284.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 14,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,018,020.45. The trade was a 64.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were 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 owns 17,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,471,480.70. This trade represents a 42.84 % 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 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 38,655.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 799,907 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $107,340,000 after acquiring an additional 797,843 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 19.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,356,262 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $279,351,000 after acquiring an additional 384,184 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 2,139.2% in the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,667,000 after acquiring an additional 282,487 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

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.