Centricity Wealth Management LLC Purchases Shares of 1,014 Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 1,014 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $142,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Paychex by 38,655.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 797,843 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 46.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 3.8% during the 3rd 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 buying an additional 345,682 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 2,404.5% during the 4th 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 period. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 2,139.2% during the 3rd 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 period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAYX has been the topic of several analyst reports. 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 report on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $150.26 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $54.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.63, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $143.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $139.43. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Paychex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.72 and a 52 week high of $151.72.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during 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 firm’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

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

Paychex 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.