Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Has $1.96 Million Stock Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC reduced its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,089 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 137 shares during the quarter. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $1,962,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tower Wealth Partners Inc. boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 3.4% during the third quarter. Tower Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 1,054 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 2.1% in the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $482,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 0.4% during the third quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,902,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 5,698 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,360,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Austin Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 923 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on ADP shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $270.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Automatic Data Processing currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of ADP opened at $306.93 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $292.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $267.99. The company has a market cap of $125.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.79. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a one year low of $227.12 and a one year high of $309.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. The business had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.08 EPS. Automatic Data Processing’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This is a positive change from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is 59.77%.

Insider Activity at Automatic Data Processing

In other Automatic Data Processing news, Director Carlos A. Rodriguez sold 9,203 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.45, for a total value of $2,479,748.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,899,862.45. This represents a 20.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Maria Black sold 19,147 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total transaction of $5,253,553.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,807 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,464,384.66. This represents a 17.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 70,504 shares of company stock valued at $20,298,056 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

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.