Howe & Rusling Inc. Sells 2,346 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Howe & Rusling Inc. trimmed its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 16.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,752 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,346 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Paychex during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $919,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Paychex by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 40,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,694,000 after purchasing an additional 7,608 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in Paychex by 23.4% in the fourth quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 26,513 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,718,000 after buying an additional 5,025 shares during the last quarter. Moment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Paychex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $950,000. Finally, Sava Infond d.o.o. purchased a new position in Paychex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $266,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.50.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $150.19 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $114.72 and a 12-month high of $158.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $148.03 and a 200 day moving average of $143.04.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.53%.

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.