Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $14.03 Million Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB cut its holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 100,089 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 3,340 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Paychex were worth $14,034,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Paychex by 38,655.2% in the third 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 lifted its stake in Paychex by 46.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after acquiring an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Paychex by 3.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Paychex by 2,404.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,391,000 after acquiring an additional 317,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA lifted its stake in Paychex by 2,139.2% in the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $39,667,000 after acquiring an additional 282,487 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Paychex Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $148.51 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.72 and a 1 year high of $151.72. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $144.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. Paychex’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

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

Paychex Company 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.