New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Sells 300 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board cut its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,948 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Paychex were worth $2,306,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Paychex by 1.3% in the first quarter. Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 47,940 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,396,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares in the last quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Paychex by 9.2% in the first quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,697 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $725,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Paychex by 8.0% in the first quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 18,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,885,000 after acquiring an additional 1,388 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 10.8% in the first quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 7,146 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,102,000 after buying an additional 694 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 1.0% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 499,337 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $74,276,000 after buying an additional 4,751 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays set a $155.00 price target on shares of Paychex and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Cfra Research raised shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 target price on shares of Paychex and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Citigroup set a $158.00 target price on shares of Paychex and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $140.00 target price on shares of Paychex and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.11.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total value of $544,762.50. Following the sale, the director owned 78,455 shares in the company, valued at $11,709,408.75. This trade represents a 4.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Paychex Stock Up 0.7%

PAYX opened at $145.94 on Thursday. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.40 and a fifty-two week high of $161.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a fifty day moving average of $152.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $148.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.93, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.88.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 25th. The business services provider reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19. Paychex had a net margin of 29.75% and a return on equity of 45.01%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.12 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 21st will be issued a $1.08 dividend. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.96%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 94.53%.

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.