Paychex - PAYX Stock Forecast, Price & News

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. The company also provides HR solutions, including payroll, employer compliance, HR and employee benefits administration, risk management outsourcing, and the on-site availability of a professionally trained HR representative; and retirement services administration, including plan implementation, ongoing compliance with government regulations, employee and employer reporting, participant and employer online access, electronic funds transfer, and other administrative services. In addition, it offers cloud-based HR administration software products for employee benefits management and administration, time and attendance, digital communication solutions, recruiting, and onboarding solutions; plan administration outsourcing and state unemployment insurance services; various business services to small to medium-sized businesses comprising payroll funding and outsourcing services, which include payroll processing, invoicing, and tax preparation; and payment processing services, financial fitness programs, and a small-business loan resource center. Further, the company provides insurance services for property and casualty coverage, such as workers' compensation, business-owner policies, cyber security protection, and commercial auto, as well as health and benefits coverage, including health, dental, vision, and life. It markets and sells its services primarily through its direct sales force. The company was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Rochester, New York.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of PAYX traded up $3.54 on Friday, hitting $135.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,824,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,413,061. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $121.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $123.64. Paychex has a fifty-two week low of $106.55 and a fifty-two week high of $141.92. The company has a market capitalization of $48.96 billion, a PE ratio of 35.32, a PEG ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX - Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, June 29th. The business services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 43.65% and a net margin of 30.20%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Paychex will post 4.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 10th. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. Paychex's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.29%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on PAYX shares. Barclays reduced their price objective on Paychex from $140.00 to $127.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 30th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Paychex from $138.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 29th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, May 23rd. Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 30th. Finally, Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $129.23.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In other Paychex news, CFO Efrain Rivera sold 3,875 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.80, for a total transaction of $452,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 85,743 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,014,782.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Martin Mucci sold 21,631 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.80, for a total transaction of $2,526,500.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 420,535 shares of the company's stock, valued at $49,118,488. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Efrain Rivera sold 3,875 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.80, for a total transaction of $452,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 85,743 shares in the company, valued at $10,014,782.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 90,837 shares of company stock valued at $10,539,336 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.50% of the company's stock.