Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Trims Stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lessened its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 19.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 109,745 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 26,700 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Paychex were worth $15,388,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PAYX. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Paychex by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 187,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,182,000 after purchasing an additional 4,157 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC increased its position in Paychex by 91.1% in the fourth quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 10,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,515,000 after buying an additional 5,153 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 6.2% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 70,347 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,440,000 after buying an additional 4,082 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 329,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $44,159,000 after buying an additional 20,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 151.0% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,761 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,310,000 after acquiring an additional 5,872 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on PAYX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays raised their price objective 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Down 1.2 %

PAYX opened at $148.51 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $53.47 billion, a PE ratio of 31.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $144.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $139.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.72 and a 52 week high of $151.72.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.53%.

Paychex Company 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.