Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Increases Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 16.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,459 shares during the quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich’s holdings in Paychex were worth $6,338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in shares of Paychex in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Avion Wealth increased its position in Paychex by 469.8% during the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 245 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. MilWealth Group LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Paychex during the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.23.

Paychex Stock Up 2.4 %

PAYX opened at $153.48 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $114.72 and a 12 month high of $154.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The business has a 50-day moving average of $146.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.64.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.