CWS Financial Advisors LLC Acquires 884 Shares of Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

CWS Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 27.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,158 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 884 shares during the period. CWS Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $605,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Select Equity Group L.P. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 99.0% during the 1st quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,494,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $539,102,000 after buying an additional 1,738,372 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Paychex during the first quarter worth $134,192,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 7.3% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,782,173 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,663,474,000 after acquiring an additional 737,542 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 117.6% in the 1st quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,217,092 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $187,512,000 after purchasing an additional 657,871 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 25.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,844,949 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $438,919,000 after purchasing an additional 581,410 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens raised shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Paychex from $140.00 to $126.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group dropped their price target on Paychex from $140.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Paychex from $153.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Paychex presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $139.87.

Paychex Stock Performance

PAYX stock opened at $112.10 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $124.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.14. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $109.99 and a fifty-two week high of $161.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.34 billion, a PE ratio of 25.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.93.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.02. The company 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 revenue for the quarter was up 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.16 EPS. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. Analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $1.08 per share. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 97.08%.

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.