Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.98

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 10th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of 0.98 per share by the business services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%.

Paychex has increased its dividend payment by an average of 13.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Paychex has a dividend payout ratio of 69.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Paychex to earn $5.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.8%.

Paychex Stock Performance

Shares of PAYX opened at $139.06 on Friday. Paychex has a one year low of $114.72 and a one year high of $150.71. The company has a market cap of $50.07 billion, a PE ratio of 29.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $142.35 and a 200-day moving average of $134.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.97% and a net margin of 31.98%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Paychex will post 4.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Citigroup lifted their target price on Paychex from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group upped their price target on Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Paychex in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.23.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In other Paychex news, CFO Robert L. Schrader sold 13,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total transaction of $1,852,685.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,471,480.70. This represents a 42.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Paychex Company Profile

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.