Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Buys Shares of 11,929 Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 11,929 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,492,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Littlejohn Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in Automatic Data Processing during the 4th quarter valued at about $708,000. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 121.7% during the fourth quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 12,898 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,776,000 after purchasing an additional 7,080 shares in the last quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 46.8% during the fourth quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,239 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032 shares in the last quarter. Burney Co. grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 25.8% during the fourth quarter. Burney Co. now owns 11,605 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,397,000 after purchasing an additional 2,377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 33.3% during the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,926 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,161,000 after purchasing an additional 7,734 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Performance

Shares of ADP stock opened at $309.41 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $231.27 and a fifty-two week high of $322.84. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $297.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $299.59. The company has a market capitalization of $125.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.26, a PEG ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $3.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.09. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 80.86% and a net margin of 19.76%. The firm had revenue of $5.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.88 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on ADP. TD Securities boosted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $296.00 to $298.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays boosted their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $303.55.

Insider Activity at Automatic Data Processing

In related news, VP Christopher D’ambrosio sold 478 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.14, for a total transaction of $140,120.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,364 shares in the company, valued at $2,158,682.96. This represents a 6.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.38, for a total value of $458,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 12,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,686,852.74. This trade represents a 11.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,451 shares of company stock worth $743,024 over the last quarter. 0.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Automatic Data Processing Company Profile

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.