Aristides Capital LLC Buys 480 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Aristides Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 12.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,480 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the quarter. Aristides Capital LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $628,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Paychex by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 143,554 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $19,267,000 after purchasing an additional 2,717 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 334.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 260,590 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,966,000 after buying an additional 200,640 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 5.5% in the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 13,427 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,802,000 after buying an additional 703 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 4,157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its position in Paychex by 15.2% during the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 37,074 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,975,000 after buying an additional 4,881 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PAYX has been the subject of several research reports. Cfra Research upgraded shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.00.

Paychex Stock Down 6.7 %

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $143.32 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.40 and a 12-month high of $158.37. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.17, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for 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 company’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 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.