Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) Shares Sold by Patten & Patten Inc. TN

Patten & Patten Inc. TN trimmed its holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,548 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $1,624,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Littlejohn Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $708,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 280,961 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $77,750,000 after acquiring an additional 15,340 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $951,000. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd raised its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 51.1% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 18,925 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,236,000 after acquiring an additional 6,399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in Automatic Data Processing by 12.0% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 82,736 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $22,896,000 after buying an additional 8,846 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADP has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Automatic Data Processing presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $296.18.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ADP stock opened at $291.76 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $302.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $294.74. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $231.27 and a fifty-two week high of $322.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $118.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The business services provider reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.05. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 80.86% and a net margin of 19.76%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.23%.

Insider Activity at Automatic Data Processing

In other news, CEO Maria Black sold 721 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.59, for a total transaction of $210,236.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 68,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,077,721.04. This represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP David Foskett sold 1,067 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.15, for a total value of $305,322.05. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,756,961. This represents a 14.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,951 shares of company stock valued at $1,762,074 over the last 90 days. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Automatic Data Processing Profile

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.