ICW Investment Advisors LLC Sells 144 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

ICW Investment Advisors LLC cut its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,690 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 144 shares during the period. ICW Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $377,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Paychex in the fourth quarter worth about $184,216,000. Amundi raised its holdings in Paychex by 77.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,534,145 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $215,164,000 after purchasing an additional 672,010 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Paychex by 30,382.8% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 568,809 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $79,758,000 after purchasing an additional 566,943 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Paychex by 46.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Paychex by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,408,458,000 after purchasing an additional 519,761 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PAYX. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.23.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $143.02 on Monday. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $158.37. The company’s 50 day moving average is $147.77 and its 200 day moving average is $142.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market cap of $51.50 billion, a PE ratio of 30.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

Paychex 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.