Kesler Norman & Wride LLC Reduces Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC reduced its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,654 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 289 shares during the period. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,521,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,419,878,000 after buying an additional 174,817 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Paychex by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,775,365,000 after acquiring an additional 60,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Paychex by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,458,000 after acquiring an additional 519,761 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,541,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,339,463,000 after acquiring an additional 126,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 46.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on PAYX shares. UBS Group upped their price target on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays upped their target price on Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Cfra Research upgraded shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Paychex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $138.83.

Paychex Stock Up 0.2 %

PAYX stock opened at $154.59 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $148.56 and a 200 day moving average of $143.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $55.68 billion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $158.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is 81.67%.

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.