Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Sells 59,577 Shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lessened its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 4.5% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,271,027 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 59,577 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $317,428,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ADP. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,769,440 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,932,020,000 after purchasing an additional 173,298 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,492,425 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,279,570,000 after purchasing an additional 249,566 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,625,186 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $905,354,000 after purchasing an additional 81,869 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 27.7% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,715,382 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $678,601,000 after purchasing an additional 589,831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 16.9% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,124,476 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $530,567,000 after purchasing an additional 307,156 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ADP shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $254.00 to $250.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $253.00 to $251.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $253.50.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ADP traded up $3.09 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $252.67. 1,449,554 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,451,799. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 1 year low of $205.53 and a 1 year high of $256.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $103.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $244.27 and a 200 day moving average of $244.99.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $2.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.79 by $0.09. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.56% and a return on equity of 93.09%. The firm had revenue of $5.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.52 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Profile

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.