JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Positive Forecast for Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Stock Price

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) had its target price boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $133.00 to $139.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an underweight rating on the business services provider’s stock.

PAYX has been the subject of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $118.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.62.

Paychex Trading Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $144.09 on Tuesday. Paychex has a 12 month low of $114.72 and a 12 month high of $150.71. The stock has a market cap of $51.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $140.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $129.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Paychex

In other news, VP Michael E. Gioja sold 26,428 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.03, for a total transaction of $3,674,284.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,018,020.45. The trade was a 64.55 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total value of $1,852,685.25. Following the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,174 shares of company stock valued at $7,577,231. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in Paychex by 21.7% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 20,596 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,529,000 after purchasing an additional 3,677 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC bought a new stake in Paychex during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $346,000. MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in Paychex during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $331,000. Shell Asset Management Co. raised its stake in Paychex by 31.5% during the 1st quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 16,063 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,973,000 after purchasing an additional 3,850 shares during the period. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its stake in Paychex by 138.3% during the 1st quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 6,384 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $784,000 after purchasing an additional 3,705 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.