Red Cedar Investment Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Red Cedar Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,290 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the period. Red Cedar Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $3,126,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Paychex during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in 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. increased its stake in 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 increased its stake 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 buying an additional 166 shares during the period. Finally, Ingalls & Snyder LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $351,000. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAYX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note 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 data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $147.25 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. Paychex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.72 and a 52 week high of $151.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $143.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $138.69.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 during 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 revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 82.53%.

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.