Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.98

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of 0.98 per share by the business services provider on Thursday, May 30th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. This is a boost from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89.

Paychex has increased its dividend payment by an average of 11.7% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Paychex has a payout ratio of 67.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Paychex to earn $4.97 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 71.6%.

Paychex Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PAYX traded down $0.96 during trading on Thursday, reaching $118.45. 1,478,569 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,808,511. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s fifty day moving average is $121.69 and its 200-day moving average is $120.40. Paychex has a 52-week low of $104.09 and a 52-week high of $129.70.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 2nd. The business services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.14% and a net margin of 31.86%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Paychex will post 4.71 EPS for the current year.

Paychex declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Friday, January 19th that permits the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to reacquire up to 0.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PAYX has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Paychex from $122.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America increased their target price on Paychex from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $118.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.00.

Paychex Company Profile

Paychex, Inc provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, 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.