Paychex, Inc. $PAYX Stake Trimmed by YHB Investment Advisors Inc.

YHB Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.9% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 27,327 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 815 shares during the period. YHB Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $3,975,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its stake in Paychex by 99.0% in the 1st quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,494,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $539,102,000 after purchasing an additional 1,738,372 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Paychex by 20,236.7% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,153,089 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $177,899,000 after purchasing an additional 1,147,419 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Paychex in the 1st quarter worth about $134,192,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,782,173 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,663,474,000 after purchasing an additional 737,542 shares during the period. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 117.6% in the 1st quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,217,092 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $187,512,000 after purchasing an additional 657,871 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PAYX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Paychex from $150.00 to $148.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Paychex from $156.00 to $152.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Barclays set a $155.00 target price on Paychex and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Paychex from $148.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $140.00 target price on Paychex and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $149.20.

Paychex Trading Down 1.0%

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $131.11 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $139.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $146.03. Paychex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.24 and a 52 week high of $161.24. The company has a market capitalization of $47.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 25th. The business services provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.01% and a net margin of 29.75%.The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.12 earnings per share. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 21st were given a dividend of $1.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 21st. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 94.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Paychex news, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,370 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.92, for a total transaction of $1,755,550.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 81,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,602,669.60. This represents a 13.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 97,526 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.17, for a total value of $14,157,849.42. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 446,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,878,940.89. The trade was a 17.91% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.