Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Analysts

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a hold rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $123.00.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $118.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of PAYX opened at $119.52 on Friday. Paychex has a 12 month low of $104.09 and a 12 month high of $129.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $122.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $43.02 billion, a PE ratio of 26.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.93.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 2nd. The business services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.01. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.14% and a net margin of 31.86%. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.29 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Paychex will post 4.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Friday, January 19th that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Mark Anthony Bottini sold 15,481 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.53, for a total transaction of $1,865,924.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 82,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,966,625.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 11.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Paychex

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Paychex by 102,768.9% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,537,548 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $524,359,000 after acquiring an additional 4,533,137 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Paychex by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 18,504,389 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,204,115,000 after acquiring an additional 1,523,520 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex in the 1st quarter worth $146,617,000. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in Paychex by 337.3% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,544,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $178,162,000 after acquiring an additional 1,191,539 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Paychex by 229.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,630,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $188,655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136,456 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Paychex

Paychex, Inc provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, 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.