Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barrington Research initiated coverage on shares of Deluxe in a research note on Tuesday, September 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $31.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Deluxe from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Deluxe currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.00.

Deluxe Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of DLX opened at $23.10 on Friday. Deluxe has a fifty-two week low of $17.76 and a fifty-two week high of $32.07. The company has a market capitalization of $1.06 billion, a PE ratio of 6.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $23.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.20.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The business services provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Deluxe had a return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 4.91%. The firm had revenue of $499.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $486.30 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Deluxe will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Deluxe

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kendall Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Deluxe by 9.6% during the third quarter. Kendall Capital Management now owns 86,371 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,984,000 after purchasing an additional 7,595 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Deluxe during the second quarter worth $62,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI purchased a new position in shares of Deluxe in the second quarter valued at $244,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Deluxe in the second quarter valued at $14,739,000. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in shares of Deluxe by 14.9% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 106,897 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,553,000 after purchasing an additional 13,834 shares during the period. 93.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Deluxe Company Profile

Deluxe Corporation is a provider of payments, marketing and business technology solutions serving small businesses, financial institutions and consumers. The company’s offerings include checks and related forms, business supplies, promotional products, website and digital marketing services, customer relationship management tools, data-driven marketing solutions and payment processing services.

Deluxe also provides receivables management, fraud prevention and other financial technology services designed to help businesses and financial institutions manage transactions and customer relationships.