KRS Capital Management LLC Sells 348 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

KRS Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,101 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 348 shares during the period. KRS Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $575,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PAYX. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Paychex by 38,655.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 799,907 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $107,340,000 after buying an additional 797,843 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Paychex by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,748,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $234,627,000 after buying an additional 552,540 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Paychex by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,524,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,278,142,000 after acquiring an additional 345,682 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Paychex by 2,404.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,391,000 after acquiring an additional 317,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex by 2,139.2% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 295,692 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,667,000 after purchasing an additional 282,487 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on PAYX. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Paychex from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Paychex from $122.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Paychex from $133.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $132.23.

Paychex Price Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX traded down $0.55 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $146.29. The stock had a trading volume of 2,115,501 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,045,988. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 1.00. Paychex, Inc. has a one year low of $114.72 and a one year high of $150.71. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $142.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

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.