New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 5,847 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 293,674 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 5,847 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.08% of Paychex worth $41,179,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 12,293 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,724,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 137,337 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $19,402,000 after purchasing an additional 5,510 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 1,803 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. Finally, Ingalls & Snyder LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex during the fourth quarter worth about $351,000. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on PAYX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.23.

Paychex Price Performance

PAYX stock opened at $147.25 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $143.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $138.69. Paychex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $114.72 and a 52-week high of $151.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.00, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.08 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 2.66%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

Paychex Profile

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.