Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC Sells 85 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC reduced its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 12.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 585 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 85 shares during the quarter. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $82,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Colonial River Investments LLC bought a new stake in Paychex during the fourth quarter worth $201,000. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Paychex during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. World Equity Group Inc. bought a new stake in Paychex during the fourth quarter worth $371,000. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Paychex by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,196 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $729,000 after acquiring an additional 970 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Howard Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Paychex by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,254,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Paychex Trading Down 1.2 %

PAYX stock opened at $148.51 on Monday. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $144.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.81. Paychex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.72 and a 52 week high of $151.72. The company has a market capitalization of $53.47 billion, a PE ratio of 31.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Two equities 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $132.23.

Paychex 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.