Wellington Management Group LLP Trims Stake in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Wellington Management Group LLP cut its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP - Free Report) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,010,628 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 40,385 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP owned 1.48% of Automatic Data Processing worth $1,663,321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 110.9% in the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 108,492 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $30,023,000 after purchasing an additional 57,054 shares in the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC increased its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 7.9% during the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 9,878 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,734,000 after buying an additional 725 shares during the period. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd raised its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 14.7% in the third quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 164,158 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $45,427,000 after buying an additional 21,005 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 2.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 18,334,580 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $5,098,541,000 after buying an additional 424,328 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 0.6% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,917,019 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $530,521,000 after buying an additional 11,340 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.03% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ADP. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ADP traded up $2.76 during trading on Friday, reaching $304.56. 2,621,938 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,488,306. The stock has a market cap of $124.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $294.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $269.52. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 52-week low of $227.12 and a 52-week high of $309.63.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. The business had revenue of $4.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.08 EPS. The company's revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $1.54 dividend. This is a positive change from Automatic Data Processing's previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. Automatic Data Processing's payout ratio is 59.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Automatic Data Processing

In other news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 38,975 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $11,692,500.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 32,604 shares in the company, valued at $9,781,200. This trade represents a 54.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company's stock.

About Automatic Data Processing

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.