ING Groep NV Reduces Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

ING Groep NV lessened its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 26.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 49,702 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 18,279 shares during the period. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Paychex were worth $6,969,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Paychex by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 32,317 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,337,000 after acquiring an additional 9,681 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Paychex by 38,655.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 799,907 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $107,340,000 after acquiring an additional 797,843 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its stake in Paychex by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 3,207 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Paychex by 36.7% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 13,210 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,773,000 after acquiring an additional 3,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tectonic Advisors LLC grew its stake in Paychex by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 44,070 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,914,000 after acquiring an additional 6,248 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAYX has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $148.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.27, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $144.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.60. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.72 and a fifty-two week high of $151.72.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.53%.

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.