Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Director Sells 7,839 Shares of Company Stock

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Director Joseph Velli sold 7,839 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.68, for a total value of $844,103.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 81,725 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,800,148. This represents a 8.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of Paychex stock traded up $0.85 during trading on Friday, reaching $111.63. 5,508,709 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,485,495. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $85.45 and a 1-year high of $128.78. The company has a market cap of $39.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.15, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $114.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $105.11.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 52.78% and a net margin of 27.35%. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. Paychex has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.896-6.006 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 5.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 26th will be paid a dividend of $1.19 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 26th. This represents a $4.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 94.44%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Paychex

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Paychex during the second quarter worth about $2,728,970,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Paychex by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,411,341 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,417,067,000 after buying an additional 361,713 shares during the last quarter. XXEC Inc. bought a new position in Paychex in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,123,016,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Paychex during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $434,061,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Paychex by 13.5% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,344,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $215,934,000 after buying an additional 278,507 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Paychex from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Paychex in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $107.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $450.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $112.00 to $96.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $127.59.

About Paychex

Paychex, Inc (NASDAQ: PAYX) provides payroll, human resources and employee benefits solutions for businesses of varying sizes. Its services are designed to help employers manage workforce administration, compliance and employee-related processes through integrated software and professional support.

The company’s offerings include payroll processing, time and attendance tracking, human resources administration, recruiting and onboarding tools, benefits administration, retirement services, workers’ compensation and business insurance solutions.