Truist Financial Corp Sells 14,498 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Truist Financial Corp trimmed its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 7.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 187,455 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 14,498 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Paychex were worth $26,285,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 2.3% in the third quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 187,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,182,000 after acquiring an additional 4,157 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 91.1% in the fourth quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 10,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,515,000 after acquiring an additional 5,153 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 6.2% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 70,347 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,440,000 after acquiring an additional 4,082 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 6.5% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 329,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $44,159,000 after acquiring an additional 20,064 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 151.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,761 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,310,000 after acquiring an additional 5,872 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Paychex Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $148.40 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $53.43 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a fifty day moving average of $143.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $139.13. Paychex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $114.72 and a 52-week 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share 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 paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.64%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.53%.

Paychex Company 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.