Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Acquires 3,138 Shares of Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,217 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,138 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $6,432,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stephens upgraded shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Paychex in a report on Tuesday. Wolfe Research cut their price objective on Paychex from $145.00 to $140.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Argus reduced their price objective on Paychex from $170.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $139.87.

Paychex Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $111.41 on Thursday. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $108.00 and a 1 year high of $161.24. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $120.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $136.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The company has a market cap of $40.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.04, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 7th were given a dividend of $1.08 per share. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 97.08%.

Paychex 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.