Fairman Group LLC Takes $65,000 Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Fairman Group LLC acquired a new stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 547 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $65,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Paychex by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 679,598 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $80,947,000 after purchasing an additional 3,513 shares during the last quarter. M3 Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Paychex during the 4th quarter worth $311,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Paychex in the 4th quarter worth about $71,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Paychex by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,418,038 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,623,093,000 after acquiring an additional 487,031 shares during the period. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex during the fourth quarter valued at about $54,000. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Paychex Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of PAYX stock traded down $0.09 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $124.62. The stock had a trading volume of 33,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,753,053. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.86 billion, a PE ratio of 27.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $122.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.03. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $106.27 and a 52-week high of $129.70.

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

Paychex Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th were issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 9th. This is a positive change from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.15%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 85.40%.

Insider Activity

In other Paychex news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 19,709 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,454,755.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,383 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $670,452.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 11.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on PAYX shares. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $118.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Paychex from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.00.

About Paychex

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.