Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Buys 64,640 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 46.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 205,198 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 64,640 shares during the quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in Paychex were worth $28,773,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Paychex by 220.7% in the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 186 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in shares of Paychex in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Paychex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Avion Wealth raised its holdings in Paychex by 469.8% in the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 245 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PAYX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays boosted their price target on Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Cfra Research raised Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.00.

Paychex Price Performance

PAYX opened at $144.41 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $148.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $144.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.40, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.88. Paychex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.40 and a 52-week high of $158.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.38 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

About Paychex

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.