Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. Buys Shares of 69,501 Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 69,501 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,797,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,877,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,348,625 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,750,669,000 after acquiring an additional 4,583,157 shares during the period. First Long Island Investors LLC lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 23.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 99,607 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,626,000 after acquiring an additional 19,185 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 38.2% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 978,091 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $123,983,000 after acquiring an additional 270,327 shares during the period. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 35.9% in the 3rd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 63,659 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,069,000 after acquiring an additional 16,812 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on PAYX. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Paychex from $116.00 to $95.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Paychex from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $100.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Stephens reduced their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $105.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Paychex has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $106.63.

Paychex Price Performance

Paychex stock opened at $100.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $36.05 billion, a PE ratio of 22.17 and a beta of 0.84. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $85.45 and a one year high of $154.90. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $93.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $100.07.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The business services provider reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.78 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 48.52% and a net margin of 25.84%.Paychex’s revenue was up 19.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.49 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 5.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 13th were given a dividend of $1.19 per share. This is a boost from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.08. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 13th. This represents a $4.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 104.85%.

About Paychex

Paychex, Inc, founded in 1971 by B. Thomas “Tom” Golisano and headquartered in Rochester, New York, is a provider of payroll, human resources, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses. The company’s core services include payroll processing and tax filing, employee benefits administration, retirement services, and workers’ compensation administration, designed to simplify back-office operations and help clients comply with regulatory and tax requirements.

Paychex offers an integrated technology platform, marketed under the Paychex Flex brand, which delivers cloud-based payroll, HR, time and attendance, and reporting tools.