May Hill Capital LLC Makes New Investment in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

May Hill Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 707 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ADP. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Automatic Data Processing in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $455,993,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 4th quarter valued at $342,942,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 41,710.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,090,422 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $319,199,000 after buying an additional 1,087,814 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,120,039 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $910,972,000 after acquiring an additional 449,431 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 2.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 18,334,580 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,098,541,000 after acquiring an additional 424,328 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Automatic Data Processing news, CEO Maria Black sold 721 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.59, for a total transaction of $210,236.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 68,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,077,721.04. This represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 362 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.83, for a total transaction of $106,366.46. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 13,706 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,027,233.98. The trade was a 2.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,951 shares of company stock worth $1,762,074. 0.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on ADP shares. Barclays raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com lowered Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $302.30.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Up 0.3 %

ADP stock opened at $306.54 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.90 billion, a PE ratio of 31.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a fifty day moving average of $304.22 and a 200-day moving average of $296.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a one year low of $231.27 and a one year high of $322.84.

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

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $1.54 per share. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.23%.

Automatic Data Processing Company 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.