Brighton Jones LLC Acquires 165 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,643 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $553,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 337.3% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,544,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $178,162,000 after purchasing an additional 1,191,539 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 229.8% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,630,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $188,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136,456 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 26.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,631,066 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $303,441,000 after acquiring an additional 554,968 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Paychex by 218.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 680,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $80,794,000 after purchasing an additional 466,890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 38.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 990,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $114,179,000 after acquiring an additional 276,446 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PAYX. Bank of America upped their target price on Paychex from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $118.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two equities research 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.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.00.

Paychex Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of PAYX opened at $118.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $121.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.39. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $104.09 and a one year high of $129.70. The company has a market capitalization of $42.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.93.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 2nd. The business services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.01. Paychex had a net margin of 31.86% and a return on equity of 46.14%. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.29 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Friday, January 19th that allows the company to repurchase $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.31%. This is a boost from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.56%.

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.