Cumberland Partners Ltd Lowers Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Cumberland Partners Ltd lowered its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX - Free Report) by 15.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,000 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 2,000 shares during the period. Cumberland Partners Ltd's holdings in Paychex were worth $1,542,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Paychex by 38,655.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 799,907 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $107,340,000 after purchasing an additional 797,843 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Paychex by 3.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Paychex by 2,404.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $46,391,000 after acquiring an additional 317,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA raised its position in Paychex by 2,139.2% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $39,667,000 after purchasing an additional 282,487 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAYX has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Barclays increased their price target 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Paychex has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $132.23.

Paychex Trading Down 1.1 %

Paychex stock traded down $1.70 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $148.56. The stock had a trading volume of 688,162 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,694,581. The stock has a market cap of $53.49 billion, a PE ratio of 31.28, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $143.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $139.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Paychex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.72 and a 52 week high of $151.72.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. Paychex's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 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.