8,323 Shares in Paychex, Inc. $PAYX Purchased by Hilltop National Bank

Hilltop National Bank bought a new position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 8,323 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,211,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its position in Paychex by 99.0% during the first quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,494,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $539,102,000 after buying an additional 1,738,372 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Paychex in the 1st quarter worth about $134,192,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted 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 worth $1,663,474,000 after purchasing an additional 737,542 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted 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 worth $187,512,000 after purchasing an additional 657,871 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 25.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,844,949 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $438,919,000 after purchasing an additional 581,410 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Paychex from $148.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group cut their price objective on Paychex from $148.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 price objective on Paychex and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Paychex from $142.00 to $137.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on Paychex from $158.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $142.83.

Paychex Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $123.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.38 billion, a PE ratio of 27.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.92. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $119.02 and a 1-year high of $161.24. The business has a 50-day moving average of $136.13 and a 200 day moving average of $144.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.17% and a net margin of 27.85%.Paychex’s quarterly revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.16 EPS. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 3.5%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 97.08%.

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 transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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 shares were sold at an average price of $145.17, for a total value of $14,157,849.42. Following the transaction, 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. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

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.