Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Barclays Analyst Says

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) had its price objective upped by Barclays from $140.00 to $155.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the business services provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 0.27% from the stock’s current price.

PAYX has been the subject of several other reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Paychex in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. UBS Group increased their price target on Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $138.83.

Paychex Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of PAYX stock opened at $154.59 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $148.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $143.65. The stock has a market cap of $55.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.98. Paychex has a 12 month low of $114.72 and a 12 month high of $158.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.28% and a net margin of 32.02%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.38 EPS. Paychex’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Paychex will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 187,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,182,000 after buying an additional 4,157 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its position in Paychex by 91.1% in the fourth quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 10,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,515,000 after acquiring an additional 5,153 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC increased its stake in Paychex by 6.5% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 329,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $44,159,000 after acquiring an additional 20,064 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Paychex by 2.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 997,930 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $142,055,000 after acquiring an additional 27,296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Paychex by 120.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 6,936 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $973,000 after purchasing an additional 3,783 shares during the period. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Paychex

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.