Meeder Asset Management Inc. Has $26,000 Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 220.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 186 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $26,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,521,025 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,419,878,000 after buying an additional 174,817 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Paychex by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,230,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,775,365,000 after acquiring an additional 60,455 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,044,631 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,408,458,000 after acquiring an additional 519,761 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,262,700,000 after purchasing an additional 190,937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,627,000 after purchasing an additional 552,540 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Paychex Price Performance

PAYX stock opened at $154.94 on Thursday. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $143.73. Paychex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.40 and a 12-month high of $158.37. The firm has a market cap of $55.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.62, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.38 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 81.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PAYX. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays raised their price objective on Paychex from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Cfra Research raised Paychex to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Two 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.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $138.83.

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.