Erste Asset Management GmbH Acquires 5,800 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Erste Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 51,300 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,800 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH’s holdings in Paychex were worth $7,247,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Paychex by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,775,365,000 after purchasing an additional 60,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,458,000 after buying an additional 519,761 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Paychex by 2.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,262,700,000 after buying an additional 190,937 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in Paychex by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,649,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $231,295,000 after acquiring an additional 82,091 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Paychex Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $143.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.69 billion, a PE ratio of 30.22, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $114.72 and a one year high of $158.37. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $146.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.73%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on PAYX shares. Barclays raised 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group upped their target price on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.23.

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.