Gilbert & Cook Inc. Acquires 61 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 3.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,805 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc.’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 70.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 264,466 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 1.7% in the first quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 247,474 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $61,804,000 after purchasing an additional 4,253 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 23.8% in the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 26,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,352,000 after acquiring an additional 5,114 shares during the period. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Automatic Data Processing in the third quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 2,917.1% in the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 4,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $997,000 after acquiring an additional 4,084 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADP has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $271.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Automatic Data Processing currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Automatic Data Processing stock opened at $297.64 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $287.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $264.02. 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 capitalization of $121.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79. 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 (NASDAQ:ADP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $1.54 dividend. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This is an increase from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio is 59.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Automatic Data Processing

In other news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 38,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $11,692,500.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 32,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,781,200. This represents a 54.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Maria Black sold 19,147 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total value of $5,253,553.86. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,807 shares in the company, valued at $25,464,384.66. This trade represents a 17.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 97,792 shares of company stock worth $27,691,708 in the last quarter. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.