Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC Sells 84,689 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC reduced its position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 78.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,803 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 84,689 shares during the quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $6,968,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ADP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,731,270 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,923,265,000 after purchasing an additional 277,324 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,583,607 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,098,305,000 after buying an additional 65,965 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,174,419 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,807,438,000 after buying an additional 902,354 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,136,763 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,796,415,000 after buying an additional 1,299,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,886,552 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,137,710,000 after buying an additional 219,032 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ADP. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated 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. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $305.64.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ ADP opened at $322.63 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 52-week low of $231.27 and a 52-week high of $323.66. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $300.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $300.69. The stock has a market cap of $130.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $3.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.88 earnings per share. Automatic Data Processing’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 EPS for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Automatic Data Processing

In other 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 transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $3,686,852.74. The trade was a 11.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,451 shares of company stock worth $743,024 over the last ninety days. 0.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.