SouthState Corp Sells 718 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

SouthState Corp reduced its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 4.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 16,904 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 718 shares during the quarter. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $4,948,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Dunhill Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 346.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 106 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $296.18.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:ADP opened at $291.76 on Monday. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a twelve month low of $231.27 and a twelve month high of $322.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $302.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $294.74. The company has a market cap of $118.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The business services provider reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.05. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.76% and a return on equity of 80.86%. As a group, analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $1.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is 64.23%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 362 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.83, for a total value of $106,366.46. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 13,706 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,027,233.98. This represents a 2.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Maria Black sold 721 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.59, for a total transaction of $210,236.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 68,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,077,721.04. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,951 shares of company stock valued at $1,762,074. 0.21% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Automatic Data Processing Profile

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.