Valmark Advisers Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

Valmark Advisers Inc. decreased its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,074 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 161 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,465,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PAYX. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its position in Paychex by 99.0% in the first quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,494,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $539,102,000 after buying an additional 1,738,372 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex in the first quarter worth about $134,192,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Paychex by 7.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,782,173 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,663,474,000 after buying an additional 737,542 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 117.6% in the first quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,217,092 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $187,512,000 after acquiring an additional 657,871 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 25.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,844,949 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $438,919,000 after acquiring an additional 581,410 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on PAYX shares. Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on Paychex from $145.00 to $140.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Argus dropped their price objective on Paychex from $170.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Barclays set a $155.00 price objective on Paychex and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Paychex from $158.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Stephens started coverage on Paychex in a research note on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $135.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $141.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,370 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.92, for a total transaction of $1,755,550.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 81,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,602,669.60. This represents a 13.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $126.59 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $134.43 and a 200 day moving average of $143.99. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $119.02 and a 12 month high of $161.24. The firm has a market cap of $45.56 billion, a PE ratio of 28.45, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.17% and a net margin of 27.85%.The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.