Finward Bancorp Purchases New Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Finward Bancorp acquired a new position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 3,379 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $474,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Paychex in the fourth quarter worth $184,216,000. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 77.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,534,145 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $215,164,000 after acquiring an additional 672,010 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 86.5% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,355,713 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $189,746,000 after acquiring an additional 628,912 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 30,382.8% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 568,809 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $79,758,000 after purchasing an additional 566,943 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Paychex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $78,215,000. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Cfra Research raised Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.00.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $147.62 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $148.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $144.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.08, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.88. Paychex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.40 and a 12-month high of $158.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 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 net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.