Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Purchases 245 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. grew its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,178 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 245 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $10,525,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ADP. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 22,539.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 934,326 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $217,670,000 after acquiring an additional 930,199 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,128,701 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $752,703,000 after acquiring an additional 905,043 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 65.5% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,402,511 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $337,416,000 after acquiring an additional 555,184 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,576,575 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $855,287,000 after acquiring an additional 553,946 shares during the period. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $107,401,000. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David Kwon sold 863 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $215,750.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,071,250. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 368 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.01, for a total value of $90,899.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 20,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,018,996.19. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP David Kwon sold 863 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $215,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,071,250. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,162 shares of company stock valued at $3,741,859 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on ADP shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Automatic Data Processing from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $217.00 to $243.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $265.00 to $272.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $227.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Automatic Data Processing from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Automatic Data Processing has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.58.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

Shares of Automatic Data Processing stock traded down $1.39 on Friday, hitting $244.95. 573,090 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,781,264. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $246.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $239.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The company has a market cap of $100.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.78. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 12-month low of $205.53 and a 12-month high of $256.84.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.10 by $0.03. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.14% and a return on equity of 95.22%. The firm had revenue of $4.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.96 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.19%.

About Automatic Data Processing

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.