Leisure Capital Management Sells 699 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Leisure Capital Management lowered its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 7.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,193 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 699 shares during the period. Leisure Capital Management’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,149,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 152.6% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 293 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its stake in Paychex by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 65,291 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,761,000 after purchasing an additional 4,242 shares during the last quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Paychex in the third quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 6.9% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 103,429 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,879,000 after buying an additional 6,716 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 21.1% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,491 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $603,000 after buying an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays lifted their price target on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Paychex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $147.67 on Monday. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $150.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $142.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.35. The company has a market cap of $53.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.09, a PEG ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.00.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during 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%. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.