Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Receives $123.00 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and nine have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $123.00.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $118.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th.

Paychex Stock Performance

Paychex stock opened at $124.37 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Paychex has a 1 year low of $104.09 and a 1 year high of $129.70. The company has a market cap of $44.77 billion, a PE ratio of 27.10, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s 50-day moving average is $121.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $120.81.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 2nd. The business services provider reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.01. Paychex had a net margin of 31.86% and a return on equity of 46.14%. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Paychex will post 4.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This is a boost from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. Paychex’s payout ratio is 85.40%.

Paychex announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Friday, January 19th that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 0.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. Ethos Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 1,952 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $232,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,225 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,171,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,908 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 3.8% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,543 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $312,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Rogco LP lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Rogco LP now owns 8,469 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,009,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Paychex Company Profile

Paychex, Inc provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, 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.