Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Updates FY25 Earnings Guidance

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) issued an update on its FY25 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $4.96-5.05 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $4.97. The company issued revenue guidance of $5.49-5.57 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $5.52 billion.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Paychex from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Paychex from $118.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.62.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX traded up $5.49 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $141.35. 287,456 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,784,952. Paychex has a twelve month low of $114.72 and a twelve month high of $150.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $142.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $132.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.99.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 31.98% and a return on equity of 45.97%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Paychex will post 4.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paychex

In other Paychex news, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total transaction of $1,852,685.25. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 17,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,471,480.70. The trade was a 42.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 14,731 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.18, for a total transaction of $2,050,260.58. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,020,197.70. This trade represents a 50.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 54,174 shares of company stock valued at $7,577,231 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

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.