Bar Harbor Wealth Management Sells 69 Shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

Bar Harbor Wealth Management decreased its position in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 4.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,655 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 69 shares during the quarter. Bar Harbor Wealth Management’s holdings in Paychex were worth $255,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAYX. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Paychex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $184,216,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Paychex by 20,236.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,153,089 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $177,899,000 after acquiring an additional 1,147,419 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Paychex by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,807,554 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $674,115,000 after acquiring an additional 694,651 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in Paychex by 77.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,534,145 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $215,164,000 after acquiring an additional 672,010 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in Paychex by 86.5% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,355,713 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $189,746,000 after acquiring an additional 628,912 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Paychex Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of PAYX opened at $153.22 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $151.13 and its 200 day moving average is $147.47. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.40 and a fifty-two week high of $161.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.19 billion, a PE ratio of 32.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.38 earnings per share. Paychex’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were given a $1.08 dividend. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This is a boost from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Paychex’s payout ratio is currently 90.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Paychex in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $141.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Paychex from $148.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Cfra Research upgraded shares of Paychex to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $142.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Paychex news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total transaction of $544,762.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 78,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,709,408.75. The trade was a 4.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 11.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.