Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

DLX has been the topic of several other reports. Barrington Research started coverage on shares of Deluxe in a report on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $31.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Deluxe from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.00.

Deluxe Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of DLX stock opened at $22.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The company has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.07, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.28. Deluxe has a 1-year low of $17.76 and a 1-year high of $32.07.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The business services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $499.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $486.30 million. Deluxe had a net margin of 4.91% and a return on equity of 23.51%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Deluxe will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Deluxe Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 18th were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 18th. Deluxe’s payout ratio is presently 53.33%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Deluxe during the second quarter worth $62,000. Strs Ohio lifted its stake in shares of Deluxe by 147.4% in the first quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 4,700 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $129,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Prism Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Deluxe during the first quarter worth about $240,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in Deluxe during the second quarter worth about $244,000. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Deluxe by 359.1% during the 1st quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 11,706 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $322,000 after acquiring an additional 9,156 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

Deluxe Company Profile

Deluxe Corporation (NYSE: DLX) is a business services company that provides products and technology-enabled solutions to small businesses, financial institutions, and consumers. The company is best known historically for producing personal and business checks, deposit products, forms, and related printed materials.

Deluxe has expanded beyond print products into marketing and business technology services. Its offerings include website development and hosting, logo design, search engine optimization, email and social media marketing, promotional products, data-driven marketing, payment processing, and fraud prevention solutions.