Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Shares Sold by New York Life Investment Management LLC

New York Life Investment Management LLC decreased its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 9.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 42,922 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 4,486 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $6,019,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Paychex by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 187,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,182,000 after acquiring an additional 4,157 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Paychex by 91.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its position in shares of Paychex by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 70,347 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,440,000 after acquiring an additional 4,082 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC grew its position in shares of Paychex by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 329,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $44,159,000 after acquiring an additional 20,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in Paychex by 151.0% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,761 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,310,000 after purchasing an additional 5,872 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $151.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.72 and a 1 year high of $151.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $145.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $140.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.61 billion, a PE ratio of 31.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.53%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PAYX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Company Profile

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.