Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Shares Purchased by Sei Investments Co.

Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 4.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 130,480 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,005 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $18,294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in Paychex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Paychex during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Avion Wealth raised its position in shares of Paychex by 469.8% in the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 245 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. MilWealth Group LLC acquired a new position in Paychex in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex during the third quarter valued at about $36,000. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays lifted their price target 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. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.58.

Paychex Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $151.83 on Friday. 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 1 year low of $114.72 and a 1 year high of $158.37. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $148.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.10. The firm has a market cap of $54.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.96, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.38 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.67%.

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.