West Oak Capital LLC Has $51,000 Stock Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

West Oak Capital LLC reduced its stake in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 98.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 175 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 15,625 shares during the quarter. West Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $51,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings 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 valued at $6,352,000 after purchasing an additional 5,114 shares during the period. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the third quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 5.8% in the third 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 period. RIA Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Automatic Data Processing during the third quarter worth approximately $470,000. Finally, Dash Acquisitions Inc. increased its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 52,329 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $15,069,000 after acquiring an additional 2,781 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ADP traded down $5.04 during trading on Friday, hitting $286.85. 2,292,441 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,475,971. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 1-year low of $231.27 and a 1-year high of $309.63. The company has a market capitalization of $116.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The business’s 50 day moving average is $298.49 and its 200-day moving average is $277.85.

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

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This is an increase from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.74%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ADP. Barclays upped their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $270.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of 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. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 362 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.83, for a total transaction of $106,366.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 13,706 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,027,233.98. This trade represents a 2.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David Foskett sold 1,004 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.29, for a total value of $290,447.16. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 5,958 shares in the company, valued at $1,723,589.82. This trade represents a 14.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,062 shares of company stock valued at $12,299,550 in the last ninety days. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.