Centric Wealth Management Grows Stock Holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Centric Wealth Management boosted its stake in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 1.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 10,872 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $3,318,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 12.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,065,308 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $964,989,000 after acquiring an additional 435,093 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,548,165 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $846,912,000 after purchasing an additional 139,561 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,238,526 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $896,197,000 after purchasing an additional 41,709 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 0.4% in the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 2,556,377 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $610,182,000 after buying an additional 9,464 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Accredited Investors Inc. grew its position in Automatic Data Processing by 4,431.5% during the third quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 2,315,295 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $640,712,000 after buying an additional 2,264,202 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Automatic Data Processing

In other news, CEO Maria Black sold 19,147 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total value of $5,253,553.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,807 shares in the company, valued at $25,464,384.66. This represents a 17.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Don Mcguire sold 3,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total transaction of $872,254.02. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 41,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,440,548.48. The trade was a 7.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 70,504 shares of company stock valued at $20,298,056 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $271.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Down 0.3 %

Automatic Data Processing stock opened at $306.92 on Friday. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 52 week low of $227.12 and a 52 week high of $309.63. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $291.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $267.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The company has a market capitalization of $125.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.79.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.12. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. The company had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.08 earnings per share. Automatic Data Processing’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 EPS for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.54 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This is a boost from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.77%.

About Automatic Data Processing

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.