Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Has $755,000 Stock Position in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 10.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,891 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 470 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $755,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 120.0% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 6,936 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $973,000 after acquiring an additional 3,783 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,419 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $990,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. Tallon Kerry Patrick acquired a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 4th quarter valued at $2,419,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 581,529 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $81,542,000 after purchasing an additional 23,359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 122.1% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 64,413 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,032,000 after purchasing an additional 35,407 shares in the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In related news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total value of $544,762.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 78,455 shares in the company, valued at $11,709,408.75. The trade was a 4.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Paychex Price Performance

Paychex stock opened at $149.12 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $151.84 and its 200 day moving average is $147.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $53.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.92. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $115.40 and a one year high of $161.24.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 45.30% and a net margin of 31.99%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.38 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were given a $1.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.90%. This is an increase from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Paychex’s payout ratio is 90.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on PAYX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Paychex from $140.00 to $148.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Paychex from $148.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Paychex has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $143.36.

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.