D Orazio & Associates Inc. Acquires 119 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

D Orazio & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 4.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,773 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. D Orazio & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $428,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Paychex by 20.5% in the 1st quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,883 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,062,000 after buying an additional 1,173 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Paychex by 2.4% during the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 11,805 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,821,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Paychex by 1.0% in the first quarter. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 16,023 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,472,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Paychex by 9.7% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 965 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $149,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its holdings in Paychex by 15.5% in the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 22,274 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,982 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on PAYX shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Paychex from $148.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Cfra Research raised Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $142.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total value of $544,762.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 78,455 shares in the company, valued at $11,709,408.75. This trade represents a 4.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 11.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Paychex Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $153.22 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $115.40 and a one year high of $161.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $151.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $147.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.19 billion, a PE ratio of 32.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.92.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.38 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were given a dividend of $1.08 per share. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%. This is a positive change from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.00%.

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.