Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Stake Lowered by Wellington Management Group LLP

Wellington Management Group LLP trimmed its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 22.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 36,027 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 10,352 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Paychex were worth $5,052,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Continuum Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Paychex during the third quarter valued at $89,000. Barclays PLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Paychex by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,243 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,382,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the last quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Paychex in the third quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 3.5% during the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 13,494 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,811,000 after buying an additional 461 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $144.41 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.40 and a 52-week high of $158.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.40, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.88. 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $144.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.38 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on PAYX shares. Barclays raised their target price on Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Cfra Research raised shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.00.

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.