Pacer Advisors Inc. Raises Holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 75,556 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,477 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $20,909,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ADP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 70.7% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 638,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $152,405,000 after buying an additional 264,466 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 23.8% during the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 26,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,352,000 after buying an additional 5,114 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the third quarter worth about $209,000. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 2,917.1% during the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 4,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $997,000 after buying an additional 4,084 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RIA Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the third quarter worth about $470,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Automatic Data Processing news, CEO Maria Black sold 19,147 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total value of $5,253,553.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,807 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,464,384.66. The trade was a 17.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Carlos A. Rodriguez sold 9,203 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.45, for a total transaction of $2,479,748.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 36,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,899,862.45. The trade was a 20.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 96,946 shares of company stock worth $27,462,781 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ADP shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $271.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Automatic Data Processing has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

ADP stock opened at $305.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 12-month low of $227.12 and a 12-month high of $309.37. The company has a market cap of $124.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.57, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $289.55 and a 200-day moving average of $265.87.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. The firm had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.08 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.54 per share. This is an increase from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is currently 65.74%.

About Automatic Data Processing

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.