AlphaCore Capital LLC Decreases Stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

AlphaCore Capital LLC lessened its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 13.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 5,099 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 770 shares during the quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $715,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 120.0% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 6,936 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $973,000 after buying an additional 3,783 shares during the last quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Paychex during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $314,000. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 54.6% during the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 36,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,056,000 after buying an additional 12,732 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Paychex by 1,089.0% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 95,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $13,329,000 after acquiring an additional 87,062 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in Paychex by 46.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Paychex news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total transaction of $544,762.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 78,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,709,408.75. This trade represents a 4.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on PAYX. Cfra Research raised Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. UBS Group increased their target price on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup increased their target price on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays raised their price target on Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.00.

Paychex Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $156.09 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.40 and a 1-year high of $158.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $148.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $146.27.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.38 EPS. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be given a dividend of $1.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 12th. This is a positive change from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.00%.

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.