West Family Investments Inc. Purchases Shares of 1,497 Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

West Family Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,497 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Paychex by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,215,957 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,686,133,000 after purchasing an additional 408,114 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,033,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,604,906,000 after buying an additional 251,139 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Paychex by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,183,871 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,481,053,000 after purchasing an additional 274,947 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Paychex by 3.8% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,989,182 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $769,731,000 after buying an additional 181,628 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Paychex by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,135,296 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $637,993,000 after acquiring an additional 30,670 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PAYX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Paychex from $132.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Argus lowered their price target on Paychex from $170.00 to $150.00 in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Paychex from $153.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Paychex to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $126.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $139.87.

Paychex Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $111.79 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $120.05 and a 200 day moving average of $136.24. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $108.00 and a twelve month high of $161.24. The stock has a market cap of $40.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th were paid a dividend of $1.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 7th. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 97.08%.

Paychex Company 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.