BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Purchases 9,804 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 14.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 78,096 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,804 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $22,861,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Grassi Investment Management bought a new position in Automatic Data Processing during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $227,000. Pure Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the fourth quarter worth $200,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Aspiriant LLC raised its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Aspiriant LLC now owns 2,372 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $694,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Transform Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 4th quarter worth about $581,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Automatic Data Processing

In related news, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the vice president now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Christopher D’ambrosio sold 473 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.20, for a total value of $144,832.60. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,244 shares in the company, valued at $2,218,112.80. This trade represents a 6.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,451 shares of company stock worth $743,024 in the last three months. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of ADP stock opened at $322.63 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 12-month low of $231.27 and a 12-month high of $323.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $130.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $300.13 and its 200 day moving average is $300.69.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $3.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.88 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on ADP. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. TD Securities increased their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $298.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. StockNews.com cut Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Automatic Data Processing has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $305.64.

Automatic Data Processing 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.