Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Deluxe from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Barrington Research started coverage on shares of Deluxe in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $31.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Deluxe currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.00.

Deluxe Price Performance

Deluxe stock opened at $22.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.20. Deluxe has a 52 week low of $17.76 and a 52 week high of $32.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $24.29 and a 200-day moving average of $25.27.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The business services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Deluxe had a return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 4.91%.The business had revenue of $499.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $486.30 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Deluxe’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Deluxe will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Deluxe

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Deluxe during the second quarter worth about $14,739,000. Towle & Co. bought a new position in Deluxe in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $7,963,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in Deluxe by 189.4% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 367,278 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,115,000 after buying an additional 240,359 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in Deluxe by 79.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 442,099 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,175,000 after buying an additional 195,749 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Deluxe by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,753,203 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $75,823,000 after buying an additional 101,105 shares during the period. 93.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Deluxe

Deluxe Corporation (NYSE: DLX) is a business services company that provides products and technology-enabled solutions to small businesses, financial institutions, and consumers. The company is best known historically for producing personal and business checks, deposit products, forms, and related printed materials.

Deluxe has expanded beyond print products into marketing and business technology services. Its offerings include website development and hosting, logo design, search engine optimization, email and social media marketing, promotional products, data-driven marketing, payment processing, and fraud prevention solutions.