Legal & General Group Plc Sells 43,150 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,110,408 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 43,150 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.86% of Paychex worth $368,770,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Paychex by 12.8% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,878,283 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,563,853,000 after purchasing an additional 2,373,894 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 155.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,478,325 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $304,338,000 after buying an additional 1,508,681 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Paychex in the 1st quarter valued at $146,617,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Paychex by 57.2% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,179,930 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $267,695,000 after acquiring an additional 793,468 shares during the period. Finally, FIL Ltd lifted its position in Paychex by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 2,548,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $303,492,000 after acquiring an additional 623,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paychex

In other news, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.53, for a total value of $1,514,445.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 55,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,663,199.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,670 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.53, for a total transaction of $1,514,445.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 55,745 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,663,199.85. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 101,490 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.27, for a total value of $11,901,732.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 437,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,287,448.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 147,163 shares of company stock valued at $17,537,817. 11.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PAYX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Paychex from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays lifted their price target on Paychex from $118.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Citigroup upped their price target on Paychex from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $124.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Paychex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $125.62.

Paychex Price Performance

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $132.99 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $47.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $128.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.24. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $106.27 and a twelve month high of $137.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The business services provider reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 32.03%. The company had revenue of $1.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 83.94%.

Paychex Company Profile

Paychex, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated human capital management solutions (HCM) for payroll, benefits, human resources (HR), 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.