Covenant Asset Management LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Covenant Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,181 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 859 shares during the quarter. Covenant Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $964,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Allen Capital Group LLC raised its position in Paychex by 149.1% in the 3rd quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 5,850 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $785,000 after purchasing an additional 3,502 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 62,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,334,000 after acquiring an additional 2,275 shares during the last quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Paychex by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 5,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $788,000 after acquiring an additional 575 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Paychex by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Paychex by 24.4% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 90,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,078,000 after purchasing an additional 17,676 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $144.09 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $114.72 and a one year high of $150.71. The company has a market capitalization of $51.86 billion, a PE ratio of 30.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.38. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $140.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $129.75.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The business services provider reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 31.98% and a return on equity of 45.97%. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.14 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 83.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on PAYX. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Paychex from $122.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total transaction of $1,852,685.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,471,480.70. The trade was a 42.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 26,428 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.03, for a total transaction of $3,674,284.84. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,515 shares in the company, valued at $2,018,020.45. This trade represents a 64.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 54,174 shares of company stock worth $7,577,231 in the last ninety days. 11.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.