Sfmg LLC Sells 601 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Sfmg LLC lessened its position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 16.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,041 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 601 shares during the quarter. Sfmg LLC’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $842,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ADP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 70.7% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 638,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $152,405,000 after buying an additional 264,466 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Automatic Data Processing by 23.8% in the 2nd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 26,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,352,000 after buying an additional 5,114 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Automatic Data Processing in the third quarter worth approximately $209,000. RIA Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Automatic Data Processing in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $470,000. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 280,961 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $77,750,000 after buying an additional 15,340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 38,975 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $11,692,500.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 32,604 shares in the company, valued at $9,781,200. This trade represents a 54.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ADP. Mizuho raised their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

NASDAQ ADP opened at $300.75 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $296.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $271.03. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 1 year low of $227.12 and a 1 year high of $309.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company has a market cap of $122.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.10, a PEG ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 0.79.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.08 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $1.54 dividend. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This is a boost from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is 59.77%.

Automatic Data Processing Company Profile

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.