Continuum Advisory LLC Buys 463 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Continuum Advisory LLC grew its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 76.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,067 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the period. Continuum Advisory LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $165,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 4th quarter valued at about $184,216,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Paychex by 20,236.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,153,089 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $177,899,000 after purchasing an additional 1,147,419 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Paychex by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,807,554 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $674,115,000 after purchasing an additional 694,651 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in Paychex by 77.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,534,145 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $215,164,000 after purchasing an additional 672,010 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its stake in Paychex by 86.5% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,355,713 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $189,746,000 after purchasing an additional 628,912 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAYX has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays set a $155.00 target price on Paychex and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Paychex from $140.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday. Two equities research 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.com, Paychex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.36.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of PAYX opened at $152.25 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.92. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.40 and a twelve month high of $161.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $151.98 and a 200-day moving average of $147.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 31.99% and a return on equity of 45.30%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.38 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a dividend of $1.08 per share. This is a boost from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 90.00%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was 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 owns 78,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,709,408.75. This represents a 4.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Paychex 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.