Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Takes Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 3,739 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,095,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ADP. Grassi Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the 4th quarter worth approximately $227,000. Annex Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 96.4% during the fourth quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,974 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $871,000 after purchasing an additional 1,460 shares during the period. Zhang Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Automatic Data Processing in the fourth quarter worth $205,000. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Automatic Data Processing by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,927 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,028,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tudor Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 23.4% in the fourth quarter. Tudor Financial Inc. now owns 1,381 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $404,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADP has been the subject of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $296.00 to $298.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $303.55.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of ADP opened at $322.80 on Wednesday. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a twelve month low of $231.27 and a twelve month high of $323.17. The stock has a market cap of $131.03 billion, a PE ratio of 33.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $299.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $300.53.

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

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $1.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio is currently 63.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.38, for a total transaction of $458,070.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 12,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,686,852.74. This trade represents a 11.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Christopher D’ambrosio sold 478 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,158,682.96. This represents a 6.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,451 shares of company stock worth $743,024 in the last ninety days. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by 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.