Intech Investment Management LLC Grows Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,950 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 14,813 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $21,018,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 70.7% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 638,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $152,405,000 after purchasing an additional 264,466 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 1.7% in the first quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 247,474 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $61,804,000 after acquiring an additional 4,253 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 23.8% in the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 26,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,352,000 after acquiring an additional 5,114 shares in the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Automatic Data Processing in the 3rd quarter worth $209,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 2,917.1% in the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 4,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $997,000 after purchasing an additional 4,084 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ADP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Mizuho upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $250.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Automatic Data Processing currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.91.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Performance

Shares of ADP opened at $298.59 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $121.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $288.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $265.16. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.12 and a 12 month high of $309.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.08 earnings per share. Automatic Data Processing’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.54 per share. This is an increase from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.06%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio is 59.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Michael A. Bonarti sold 26,442 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.96, for a total transaction of $7,164,724.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 88,426 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,959,908.96. This represents a 23.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP David Kwon sold 846 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.60, for a total transaction of $228,927.60. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,410 shares in the company, valued at $2,816,946. This represents a 7.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 97,792 shares of company stock worth $27,691,708. 0.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.