Welch & Forbes LLC Trims Stake in Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

Welch & Forbes LLC lowered its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.3% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 373,828 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 4,883 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $54,377,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Paychex in the first quarter valued at $34,000. Nova Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 94.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the period. Bogart Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 32.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 379 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the period. Finally, Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 1st quarter valued at $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stephens upgraded Paychex to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Paychex from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Paychex in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $139.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Paychex from $153.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on Paychex from $140.00 to $126.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Paychex currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $139.87.

Paychex Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $117.03 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $141.26. The stock has a market cap of $42.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.92. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $116.08 and a 1 year high of $161.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.17% and a net margin of 27.85%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.16 EPS. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th will be given a $1.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 7th. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 97.08%.

Paychex Profile

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.