Nottingham Advisors Inc. Reduces Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Nottingham Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 7.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,363 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 355 shares during the quarter. Nottingham Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $612,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,521,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,419,878,000 after buying an additional 174,817 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Paychex by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,775,365,000 after acquiring an additional 60,455 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Paychex by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,408,458,000 after acquiring an additional 519,761 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Paychex by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,541,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,339,463,000 after acquiring an additional 126,962 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its stake in Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on PAYX shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Paychex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $138.83.

Paychex Price Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $154.94 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $148.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $143.73. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.40 and a 12 month high of $158.37. The firm has a market cap of $55.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.38 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.67%.

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.