TCG Advisory Services LLC Purchases 3,548 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

TCG Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 156.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,821 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,548 shares during the quarter. TCG Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $693,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PAYX. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Paychex by 337.3% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,544,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $178,162,000 after acquiring an additional 1,191,539 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 229.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,630,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $188,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136,456 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 26.7% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,631,066 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $303,441,000 after purchasing an additional 554,968 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Paychex by 218.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 680,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $80,794,000 after buying an additional 466,890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Paychex by 38.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 990,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $114,179,000 after buying an additional 276,446 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PAYX traded up $1.65 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $120.10. 1,540,545 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,951,709. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $104.09 and a one year high of $129.70. The company has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.17, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $121.48 and a 200 day moving average of $120.40.

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

Paychex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. This is a positive change from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 77.56%.

Paychex declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Friday, January 19th that authorizes the company to buyback $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to purchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Paychex 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.