Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC Purchases 1,466 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 19.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,959 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,466 shares during the period. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,114,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its holdings in Paychex by 98,060.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 6,093,804 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $681,714,000 after purchasing an additional 6,087,596 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 102,768.9% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,537,548 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $524,359,000 after buying an additional 4,533,137 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 27.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,757,155 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,347,252,000 after buying an additional 2,528,158 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 56.8% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,380,489 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $501,960,000 after buying an additional 1,587,495 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new position in shares of Paychex during the 2nd quarter worth about $66,896,000. Institutional investors own 72.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on PAYX shares. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $114.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 22nd. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Paychex in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Thursday, September 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $121.63.

Paychex Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of PAYX opened at $114.05 on Thursday. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $104.09 and a one year high of $129.70. The company has a market cap of $41.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $116.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $115.50.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 27th. 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 31.40% and a return on equity of 46.51%. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.89 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 13th. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.12%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paychex

In other Paychex news, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 41,329 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.79, for a total transaction of $4,785,484.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 19,800 shares in the company, valued at $2,292,642. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 11.50% of the company’s stock.

About Paychex

Paychex, Inc provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, 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.