Citigroup Initiates Coverage on Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP)

Analysts at Citigroup started coverage on shares of Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set a “neutral” rating and a $303.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price target points to a potential upside of 7.85% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on ADP. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research report on Wednesday. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $288.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $315.00 to $290.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Automatic Data Processing to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $313.17.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

NASDAQ ADP opened at $280.94 on Thursday. Automatic Data Processing has a 52 week low of $272.62 and a 52 week high of $329.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market cap of $113.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $293.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $302.04.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.03. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.84% and a return on equity of 72.84%. The business had revenue of $5.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.05 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.09 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Automatic Data Processing has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.811-11.011 EPS. Analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing will post 9.93 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Automatic Data Processing news, CEO Maria Black sold 23,605 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.32, for a total value of $7,041,843.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 76,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,720,349.52. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Joseph Desilva sold 4,614 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.57, for a total transaction of $1,368,373.98. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 17,536 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,200,651.52. This trade represents a 20.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,516 shares of company stock worth $15,632,410 in the last ninety days. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Automatic Data Processing

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Automatic Data Processing by 92.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,026 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,935,000 after acquiring an additional 4,808 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its position in Automatic Data Processing by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 3,664 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,073,000 after acquiring an additional 681 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 13.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,495 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,901,000 after buying an additional 1,148 shares during the period. Moran Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 435.8% during the 1st quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,271 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,055,000 after buying an additional 10,794 shares during the period. Finally, Golden State Equity Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the 1st quarter worth approximately $544,000. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Automatic Data Processing

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.