Donoghue Forlines LLC Sells 470 Shares of Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

Donoghue Forlines LLC reduced its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 4.7% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,565 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 470 shares during the period. Donoghue Forlines LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,391,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 83.8% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 215 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Paychex in the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. Nova Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Paychex during the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its holdings in Paychex by 40.6% during the 2nd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 263 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 94.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAYX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Paychex from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Paychex from $153.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Paychex from $142.00 to $137.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Paychex from $132.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $139.87.

Paychex Price Performance

Paychex stock opened at $111.80 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $125.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.36. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $109.99 and a 12 month high of $161.24. The company has a market cap of $40.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.12, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.93. 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.17% and a net margin of 27.85%.The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.16 earnings per share. The business’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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $1.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 7th. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 97.08%.

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.