Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Acquires 317,634 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2,404.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 330,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 317,634 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $46,391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Paychex by 49.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 154,587 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $18,328,000 after purchasing an additional 51,085 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Paychex by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,568 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $779,000 after buying an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Paychex by 19.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,356,262 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $279,351,000 after buying an additional 384,184 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new stake in shares of Paychex in the 2nd quarter valued at $239,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Paychex during the second quarter worth $2,193,000. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAYX has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Paychex from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Paychex from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Paychex from $122.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Paychex from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Paychex from $130.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.23.

Paychex Stock Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $144.27 on Thursday. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.72 and a 1 year high of $150.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $142.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $134.84. The stock has a market cap of $51.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.76, a PEG ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.97% and a net margin of 31.98%. Paychex’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 2.72%. Paychex’s payout ratio is 82.53%.

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.