Palmer Knight Co Raises Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Palmer Knight Co increased its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 0.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 63,320 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Paychex makes up 3.6% of Palmer Knight Co’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Palmer Knight Co’s holdings in Paychex were worth $7,507,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 93,919 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,135,000 after purchasing an additional 987 shares during the last quarter. Hendershot Investments Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hendershot Investments Inc. now owns 65,926 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,816,000 after purchasing an additional 1,616 shares during the last quarter. MCF Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 1,002 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $119,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 59,277 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,028,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SouthState Corp increased its position in Paychex by 100.5% during the 2nd quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 8,269 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $980,000 after buying an additional 4,144 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PAYX. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Barclays reduced their target price on Paychex from $120.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Paychex from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Bank of America upped their target price on Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Paychex from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Paychex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.62.

Insider Transactions at Paychex

In other news, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 101,490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.27, for a total value of $11,901,732.30. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 437,345 shares in the company, valued at $51,287,448.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Paychex news, Director David J. S. Flaschen sold 14,434 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $1,807,281.14. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,383 shares in the company, valued at $674,005.43. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 101,490 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.27, for a total value of $11,901,732.30. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 437,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,287,448.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 147,163 shares of company stock worth $17,537,817 over the last quarter. 11.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of PAYX stock traded up $0.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $130.57. The stock had a trading volume of 136,420 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,811,376. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $106.27 and a 1-year high of $133.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $47.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.85, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $124.53 and its 200-day moving average is $123.03.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 32.03%. The firm had revenue of $1.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.00%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 83.94%.

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.