Insider Buying: Deluxe Co. (NYSE:DLX) CEO Purchases $64,582.70 in Stock

Deluxe Co. (NYSE:DLX) CEO Barry C. Mccarthy purchased 3,926 shares of Deluxe stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $16.45 per share, with a total value of $64,582.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 272,851 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,488,398.95. The trade was a 1.46 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Deluxe Stock Performance

DLX opened at $15.64 on Thursday. Deluxe Co. has a 12-month low of $15.13 and a 12-month high of $24.87. The stock has a market cap of $695.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.26, a PEG ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day moving average of $19.99 and a 200-day moving average of $20.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The business services provider reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by ($0.05). Deluxe had a net margin of 2.49% and a return on equity of 21.33%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Deluxe Co. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Deluxe Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.67%. Deluxe’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 101.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Deluxe

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Deluxe during the fourth quarter worth approximately $220,326,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Deluxe by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,260,552 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $118,836,000 after purchasing an additional 64,060 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Deluxe by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,361,658 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $53,351,000 after purchasing an additional 177,534 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Deluxe by 1.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,695,132 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $33,038,000 after purchasing an additional 18,133 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Deluxe by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,280,259 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $28,921,000 after acquiring an additional 31,288 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DLX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Sidoti raised Deluxe to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com raised Deluxe from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th.

About Deluxe

Deluxe Corporation provides technology-enabled solutions to enterprises, small businesses, and financial institutions in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It operates through Merchant Services, B2B Payments, Data Solutions, and Print segments. The Merchant Services offers credit and debit card authorization and payment systems, as well as processing services primarily to small and medium-sized retail and service businesses.