Commerce Bank Has $31.28 Million Stock Holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Commerce Bank cut its holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 113,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,104 shares during the quarter. Commerce Bank’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $31,276,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 70.7% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 638,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $152,405,000 after acquiring an additional 264,466 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 247,474 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $61,804,000 after acquiring an additional 4,253 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 23.8% during the 2nd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 26,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,352,000 after acquiring an additional 5,114 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Automatic Data Processing during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $209,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 2,917.1% during the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 4,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $997,000 after acquiring an additional 4,084 shares during the last quarter. 80.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $270.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Performance

ADP opened at $298.59 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $121.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 52-week low of $227.12 and a 52-week high of $309.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The business’s fifty day moving average is $288.47 and its 200-day moving average is $265.16.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $4.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.77 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. Automatic Data Processing’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.08 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $1.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This is a positive change from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Automatic Data Processing

In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 38,975 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $11,692,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 32,604 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,781,200. The trade was a 54.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Carlos A. Rodriguez sold 9,203 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.45, for a total value of $2,479,748.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 36,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,899,862.45. The trade was a 20.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 97,792 shares of company stock worth $27,691,708. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Automatic Data Processing

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.