Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Acquires Shares of 200 Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 200 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $28,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Paychex by 3.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Paychex by 2,404.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $46,391,000 after acquiring an additional 317,634 shares during the period. Unigestion Holding SA lifted its holdings in Paychex by 2,139.2% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,667,000 after acquiring an additional 282,487 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 334.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 260,590 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,966,000 after purchasing an additional 200,640 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of PAYX opened at $151.00 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $144.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $140.18. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $151.86. The stock has a market cap of $54.37 billion, a PE ratio of 31.79, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. Paychex’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 82.53%.

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.