Meeder Asset Management Inc. Has $26,000 Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 220.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 186 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $26,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Paychex by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,521,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,419,878,000 after acquiring an additional 174,817 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,775,365,000 after purchasing an additional 60,455 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,458,000 after purchasing an additional 519,761 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 2.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,262,700,000 after buying an additional 190,937 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 46.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup upped their price target on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Cfra Research raised shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $138.83.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of PAYX opened at $154.94 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.81 billion, a PE ratio of 32.62, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $148.76 and its 200-day moving average is $143.73. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.40 and a fifty-two week high of $158.37.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities 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 was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is 81.67%.

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.