Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded Deluxe from “hold” to “buy,” while Barrington Research initiated coverage with an “outperform” rating and a $31 price target. MarketBeat reports a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $31.00 target.
• Deluxe’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with EPS of $0.87 versus the $0.81 estimate and revenue of $499.3 million versus $486.3 million expected. However, revenue declined 4.2% year over year.
• Deluxe shares opened at $22.66, down 1.2%, with a market capitalization of about $1.04 billion. Institutional investors own 93.9% of the stock, and several funds recently initiated or increased positions.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Barrington Research assumed coverage on shares of Deluxe in a research note on Tuesday. They set an "outperform" rating and a $31.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Deluxe from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Deluxe currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $31.00.

Deluxe Trading Down 1.2%

Deluxe stock opened at $22.66 on Friday. Deluxe has a 52 week low of $17.76 and a 52 week high of $32.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion, a PE ratio of 10.07, a PEG ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.25. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $24.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.20.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The business services provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $499.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $486.30 million. Deluxe had a return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 4.91%.Deluxe's revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Deluxe will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Deluxe

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DLX. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in Deluxe during the 2nd quarter worth about $62,000. Kendall Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Deluxe during the second quarter valued at about $1,881,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI bought a new stake in shares of Deluxe during the second quarter valued at about $244,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Deluxe in the second quarter worth about $14,739,000. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in shares of Deluxe by 14.9% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 106,897 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $2,553,000 after buying an additional 13,834 shares in the last quarter. 93.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Deluxe Company Profile

Deluxe Corporation NYSE: DLX is a business services company that provides products and technology-enabled solutions to small businesses, financial institutions, and consumers. The company is best known historically for producing personal and business checks, deposit products, forms, and related printed materials.

Deluxe has expanded beyond print products into marketing and business technology services. Its offerings include website development and hosting, logo design, search engine optimization, email and social media marketing, promotional products, data-driven marketing, payment processing, and fraud prevention solutions.

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