Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.54

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 15th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 1.54 per share by the business services provider on Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%.

Automatic Data Processing has raised its dividend by an average of 14.4% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 49 years. Automatic Data Processing has a payout ratio of 56.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Automatic Data Processing to earn $10.79 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 57.1%.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 0.6 %

Automatic Data Processing stock opened at $293.37 on Thursday. Automatic Data Processing has a 12-month low of $231.27 and a 12-month high of $309.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $119.54 billion, a PE ratio of 31.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $298.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $279.35.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $4.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.08 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing will post 9.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 38,975 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $11,692,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 32,604 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,781,200. This trade represents a 54.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 362 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.83, for a total value of $106,366.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 13,706 shares in the company, valued at $4,027,233.98. This trade represents a 2.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 42,129 shares of company stock worth $12,604,872. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ADP. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup boosted 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. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $270.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $289.91.

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.