Principal Securities Inc. Buys 459 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,338 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,870,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Paychex by 38,655.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 799,907 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $107,340,000 after buying an additional 797,843 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in Paychex by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $46,391,000 after acquiring an additional 317,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 282,487 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $148.40 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $151.72. The company has a fifty day moving average of $143.49 and a 200-day moving average of $139.13. 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 quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 82.53%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Paychex Company 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.