Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Receives $123.00 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the eleven research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and nine have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $123.00.

PAYX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on Paychex from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $118.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Paychex Trading Up 0.5 %

PAYX opened at $124.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $44.77 billion, a PE ratio of 27.10, a PEG ratio of 3.52 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. The business has a 50 day moving average of $121.48 and a 200-day moving average of $120.81. Paychex has a 52 week low of $104.09 and a 52 week high of $129.70.

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

Paychex Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors 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 yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. This is a boost from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 85.40%.

Paychex announced that its board has approved a share 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 reacquire up to 0.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Paychex by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,541,306 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,750,472,000 after acquiring an additional 123,268 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in Paychex by 12.8% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,878,283 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,563,853,000 after buying an additional 2,373,894 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Paychex by 2.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,797,671 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $783,975,000 after buying an additional 178,316 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Paychex by 5.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,481,555 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $516,858,000 after buying an additional 246,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in Paychex by 5.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,598,560 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $415,022,000 after buying an additional 182,648 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Company Profile

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.