Shell Asset Management Co. Has $1.02 Million Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Shell Asset Management Co. trimmed its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,258 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 126 shares during the period. Shell Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,018,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 220.7% in the 4th quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 186 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Avion Wealth raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 469.8% in the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 245 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAYX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Cfra Research raised shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.00.

Paychex Stock Up 1.0%

NASDAQ PAYX opened at $155.98 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.40 and a 1-year high of $158.37. The company has a 50 day moving average of $147.26 and a 200-day moving average of $145.71. The company has a market cap of $56.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.84, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.91.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.38 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be given a $1.08 dividend. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.77%. This is an increase from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 12th. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 90.00%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total value of $544,762.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 78,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,709,408.75. The trade was a 4.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.