Argus Lowers Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Price Target to $150.00

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) had its price objective lowered by research analysts at Argus from $170.00 to $150.00 in a report issued on Thursday,MarketScreener reports. Argus’ price target points to a potential upside of 20.38% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on PAYX. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Paychex from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group set a $130.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 target price on shares of Paychex and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Paychex from $140.00 to $126.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Paychex from $158.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $142.77.

Paychex Stock Up 1.0%

Paychex stock opened at $124.61 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $44.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.00, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.27. Paychex has a fifty-two week low of $119.02 and a fifty-two week high of $161.24. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $135.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $144.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.17% and a net margin of 27.85%.The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Paychex will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 97,526 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.17, for a total transaction of $14,157,849.42. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 446,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,878,940.89. This represents a 17.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,370 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.92, for a total value of $1,755,550.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 81,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,602,669.60. The trade was a 13.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Paychex

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Paychex in the second quarter valued at about $302,244,000. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Paychex by 99.0% in the 1st quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,494,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $539,102,000 after acquiring an additional 1,738,372 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 1st quarter worth approximately $134,192,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Paychex by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,782,173 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,663,474,000 after purchasing an additional 737,542 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Paychex by 179.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,078,328 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $156,854,000 after purchasing an additional 692,533 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

About Paychex

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.