Paychex, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.98 (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 10th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.98 per share by the business services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%.

Paychex has increased its dividend by an average of 13.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Paychex has a dividend payout ratio of 69.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Paychex to earn $5.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.8%.

Paychex Trading Down 0.2 %

Paychex stock traded down $0.35 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $139.90. 326,833 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,688,447. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a PEG ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $142.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.24. Paychex has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $150.71.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 31.98% and a return on equity of 45.97%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Paychex will post 4.98 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In other news, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total transaction of $1,852,685.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 17,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,471,480.70. This trade represents a 42.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 11.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PAYX. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays upped their price target on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

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.