TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. Sells 500 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. cut its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 11.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,766 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the period. TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $528,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Leavell Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,356 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $751,000 after acquiring an additional 708 shares during the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC boosted its position in Paychex by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC now owns 14,555 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,412 shares during the period. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Paychex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,520,000. Essex Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Paychex by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 9,278 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,301,000 after purchasing an additional 436 shares during the period. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 886.9% in the fourth quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,416 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,162,000 after buying an additional 13,854 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on PAYX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. 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. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Paychex has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Performance

PAYX opened at $146.10 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $52.60 billion, a PE ratio of 30.76, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.72 and a 1 year high of $151.72. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $143.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $138.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

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

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend 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.