Zullo Investment Group Inc. Buys Shares of 1,429 Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Zullo Investment Group Inc. purchased a new position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,429 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Paychex by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,278,142,000 after purchasing an additional 345,682 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Paychex by 2,404.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $46,391,000 after purchasing an additional 317,634 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA raised its holdings in Paychex by 2,139.2% during the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,667,000 after buying an additional 282,487 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $150.04 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $143.78 and its 200-day moving average is $139.36. The company has a market cap of $54.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.59, a PEG ratio of 4.05 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. Paychex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $114.72 and a 52-week high of $151.72.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (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 return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Paychex from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

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.