Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Has $681,000 Stock Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. raised its holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,328 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 64 shares during the quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $681,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ADP. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in Automatic Data Processing in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Dunhill Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 346.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 106 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the period. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on ADP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $296.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 362 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.83, for a total transaction of $106,366.46. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 13,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,027,233.98. The trade was a 2.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Christopher D’ambrosio sold 473 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.20, for a total value of $144,832.60. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,218,112.80. This represents a 6.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,951 shares of company stock valued at $1,762,074 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 0.6 %

ADP stock opened at $294.18 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $302.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $294.33. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $231.27 and a fifty-two week high of $322.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $119.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The business services provider reported $2.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.05. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 80.86% and a net margin of 19.76%. Analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.23%.

Automatic Data Processing Profile

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.