Argyle Capital Management LLC Has $4.66 Million Stock Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Argyle Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 33,215 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 590 shares during the period. Paychex makes up about 1.8% of Argyle Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Argyle Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $4,657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 36.7% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 13,210 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,773,000 after buying an additional 3,544 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc increased its position in shares of Paychex by 6.8% in the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 128,827 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $17,313,000 after purchasing an additional 8,221 shares during the period. Fortitude Family Office LLC increased its position in shares of Paychex by 42.0% in the third quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 250 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Childress Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Paychex in the third quarter worth $217,000. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in shares of Paychex by 8.7% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 20,198 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,710,000 after purchasing an additional 1,611 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Paychex Stock Performance

Paychex stock opened at $148.76 on Friday. Paychex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $114.72 and a 12-month high of $151.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $144.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $140.30. The stock has a market cap of $53.56 billion, a PE ratio of 31.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.53%.

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.