Paychex, Inc. (PAYX) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 7th

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 10th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of 0.98 per share by the business services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th.

Paychex has increased its dividend by an average of 13.2% per year over the last three years. Paychex has a dividend payout ratio of 69.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Paychex to earn $5.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.8%.

Paychex Price Performance

Paychex stock opened at $149.51 on Wednesday. Paychex has a 12-month low of $114.72 and a 12-month high of $150.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.48, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $142.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $137.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Paychex will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.