Emerald Advisors LLC Buys 74 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Emerald Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,017 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Emerald Advisors LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $423,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.3% in the third quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 187,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,182,000 after buying an additional 4,157 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its position in Paychex by 91.1% during the 4th quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 10,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,515,000 after acquiring an additional 5,153 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in Paychex by 6.2% during the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 70,347 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,440,000 after acquiring an additional 4,082 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC grew its position in shares of Paychex by 6.5% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 329,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $44,159,000 after purchasing an additional 20,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 151.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,761 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,310,000 after purchasing an additional 5,872 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their target price on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $150.04 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.02 billion, a PE ratio of 31.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $114.72 and a 12-month high of $151.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $143.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.36.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. Paychex’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

About Paychex

Paychex, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated human capital management solutions (HCM) for payroll, benefits, human resources (HR), 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.