West Paces Advisors Inc. Has $505,000 Stock Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

West Paces Advisors Inc. trimmed its position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 193 shares during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $505,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Paychex by 102,768.9% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,537,548 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $524,359,000 after buying an additional 4,533,137 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in shares of Paychex by 337.3% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,544,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $178,162,000 after acquiring an additional 1,191,539 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 229.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,630,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $188,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136,456 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,331,387 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,306,849,000 after purchasing an additional 927,584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Paychex by 26.7% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,631,066 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $303,441,000 after buying an additional 554,968 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PAYX. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Paychex from $134.00 to $126.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Paychex from $124.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Paychex from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Paychex news, VP Mark Anthony Bottini sold 15,481 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.53, for a total value of $1,865,924.93. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 82,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,966,625.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 11.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Paychex Stock Performance

PAYX stock traded down $1.31 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $121.14. The stock had a trading volume of 1,996,256 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,799,825. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.61 billion, a PE ratio of 26.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $120.12. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $104.09 and a fifty-two week high of $129.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 2nd. The business services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.01. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.14% and a net margin of 31.86%. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.89 per share. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 12th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 77.56%.

Paychex declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Friday, January 19th that authorizes the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Paychex Company Profile

Paychex, Inc provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, 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.