Venturi Wealth Management LLC Purchases 7,665 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 4,234.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 7,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,665 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,100,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 38,655.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 799,907 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $107,340,000 after buying an additional 797,843 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Paychex by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Paychex by 2,404.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,391,000 after acquiring an additional 317,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 2,139.2% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,667,000 after purchasing an additional 282,487 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $148.40 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $53.43 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $143.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $139.28. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $114.72 and a one year high of $151.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. Research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.53%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on PAYX. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

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.