Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Shares Bought by Clark Capital Management Group Inc.

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,672 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $515,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Paychex by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,214,754 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $170,333,000 after acquiring an additional 124,016 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 49.2% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 5,155 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $723,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Dunhill Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Paychex by 83.4% during the 4th quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 565 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Paychex by 102.5% in the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 26,251 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,681,000 after purchasing an additional 13,286 shares during the period. Finally, Crestline Management LP grew its position in Paychex by 99.1% during the fourth quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 11,241 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,576,000 after buying an additional 5,596 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Stock Up 0.2 %

PAYX stock opened at $151.65 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $54.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.93, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $147.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $145.27. Paychex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.40 and a 12 month high of $158.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 12th. This is an increase from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.85%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 90.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PAYX. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Cfra Research raised Paychex to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Citigroup upped their target price on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Paychex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paychex

In other news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total transaction of $544,762.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 78,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,709,408.75. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.