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.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on PAYX shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $125.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 7th. Cowen cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 30th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $138.00 to $124.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 29th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, May 23rd. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $127.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $129.23.
Paychex Stock Up 0.1 %
NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $138.31 on Wednesday. Paychex has a twelve month low of $106.55 and a twelve month high of $141.92. The company has a market cap of $49.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $121.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $123.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.
Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX - Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 29th. The business services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 43.65% and a net margin of 30.20%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Paychex will post 4.14 EPS for the current year.
Paychex Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 11th will be given 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 2.28%. Paychex's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.29%.
Insider Activity at Paychex
In related news, CFO Efrain Rivera sold 30,866 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.13, for a total value of $3,584,468.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 86,031 shares in the company, valued at $9,990,780.03. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Efrain Rivera sold 30,866 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.13, for a total value of $3,584,468.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 86,031 shares in the company, valued at $9,990,780.03. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert L. Schrader sold 783 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.00, for a total value of $90,045.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,199 shares of the company's stock, valued at $942,885. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 90,837 shares of company stock worth $10,539,336 over the last three months. 11.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
