Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $155.45 and last traded at $155.05, with a volume of 79234 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $153.48.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PAYX has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.23.

Paychex Trading Up 2.3 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $56.52 billion, a PE ratio of 33.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $146.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $141.64. 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 posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Paychex by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,521,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,419,878,000 after acquiring an additional 174,817 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Paychex by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 26,905,031 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,772,544,000 after acquiring an additional 166,155 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,775,365,000 after acquiring an additional 60,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Paychex by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,458,000 after purchasing an additional 519,761 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,541,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,339,463,000 after purchasing an additional 126,962 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% 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.