Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Receives $133.23 Average Price Target from Analysts

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Reduce" from the thirteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and eleven have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $133.23.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on PAYX shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target 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. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target 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.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Paychex by 0.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 174,817 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in Paychex by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 26,905,031 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $3,772,544,000 after acquiring an additional 166,155 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Paychex by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,775,365,000 after acquiring an additional 60,455 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Paychex by 5.5% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Paychex by 1.3% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company's stock.

Paychex Price Performance

PAYX stock traded up $0.10 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $152.10. 1,867,538 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,808,243. Paychex has a one year low of $114.72 and a one year high of $154.98. The stock has a market cap of $54.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $145.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $141.09. 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 - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Paychex will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Paychex's payout ratio is 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.