Mattern Wealth Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Mattern Wealth Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,888 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 114 shares during the quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $405,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Paychex by 75.6% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 11,816 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,401,000 after acquiring an additional 5,086 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Paychex during the 2nd quarter worth about $6,371,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 181,024 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $21,419,000 after buying an additional 4,286 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 159,985 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,968,000 after buying an additional 597 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Group LLC grew its holdings in Paychex by 4.8% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 7,531 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $893,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on PAYX shares. Barclays upped their price objective on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.23.

Paychex Trading Up 1.3 %

PAYX opened at $148.04 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $142.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $136.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 1.00. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.72 and a 1-year high of $150.71.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.53%.

About Paychex

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.