Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Boosts Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 25,075 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 469 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Paychex were worth $2,987,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in Paychex by 6.6% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 56,552 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 3,483 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Paychex by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,478 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 781 shares in the last quarter. FORVIS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Paychex by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. FORVIS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,234 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $488,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. lifted its position in Paychex by 106.6% in the third quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. now owns 473 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its stake in Paychex by 4.2% in the third quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 66,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,642,000 after acquiring an additional 2,681 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAYX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $118.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Paychex from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.00.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of Paychex stock traded up $1.16 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $121.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,062,283 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,780,944. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $121.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.44. Paychex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $104.09 and a 12-month high of $129.70. The company has a market capitalization of $43.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 2nd. The business services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.46 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 31.86% and a return on equity of 46.14%. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.29 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.71 EPS for the current year.

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

Paychex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.22%. This is an increase from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.56%.

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.