New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Sells 400 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board decreased its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 15,248 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Paychex were worth $2,138,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 11,319 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,519,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Paychex by 31.2% in the third quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $556,000 after acquiring an additional 986 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Paychex by 19.1% in the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 8,638 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,159,000 after acquiring an additional 1,384 shares in the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Paychex in the third quarter worth approximately $433,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its holdings in Paychex by 2.4% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 34,350 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,609,000 after acquiring an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of PAYX opened at $147.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market capitalization of $53.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.00, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $143.36 and a 200 day moving average of $138.83. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $114.72 and a 12 month high of $151.72.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. Paychex’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.53%.

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.