National Pension Service Has $60.59 Million Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

National Pension Service lowered its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX - Free Report) by 37.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 432,113 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 255,976 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned about 0.12% of Paychex worth $60,591,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. State Street Corp grew its stake in Paychex by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,775,365,000 after buying an additional 60,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Paychex by 3.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,262,700,000 after acquiring an additional 190,937 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Paychex by 46.2% in 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. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD grew its position in Paychex by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,649,758 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $231,295,000 after purchasing an additional 82,091 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PAYX traded up $1.70 on Monday, reaching $153.37. 1,783,426 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,756,252. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.22 billion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company's 50 day moving average is $145.23 and its 200-day moving average is $140.71. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $154.48.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. Paychex's revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. 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.