Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC Acquires 154 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC raised its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 11,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the period. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,678,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 valued at $1,775,365,000 after purchasing an additional 60,455 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Paychex by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,278,142,000 after purchasing an additional 345,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Paychex by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,262,700,000 after purchasing an additional 190,937 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Paychex by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD grew its stake in Paychex by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,649,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $231,295,000 after purchasing an additional 82,091 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of PAYX opened at $149.89 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $144.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. 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 52-week low of $114.72 and a 52-week high of $151.72.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.53%.

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.