Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. Raises Holdings in Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 7.0% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 17,146 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares during the quarter. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $2,494,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PAYX. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 26.3% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,710 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $801,000 after buying an additional 1,190 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 4,035 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $566,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 18.1% in the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 19,746 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,046,000 after buying an additional 3,020 shares during the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 6.4% in the first quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 8,829 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,362,000 after buying an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nixon Peabody Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 4.9% in the first quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 2,198 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $339,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PAYX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Paychex from $148.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays set a $155.00 price target on Paychex and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 price target on Paychex and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Paychex from $158.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on Paychex from $140.00 to $126.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Paychex has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $142.83.

Insider Activity at Paychex

In other Paychex news, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 97,526 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.17, for a total value of $14,157,849.42. Following the sale, the chairman owned 446,917 shares in the company, valued at $64,878,940.89. The trade was a 17.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,370 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.92, for a total value of $1,755,550.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 81,755 shares in the company, valued at $11,602,669.60. This represents a 13.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Paychex Stock Performance

NASDAQ PAYX opened at $123.42 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $44.38 billion, a PE ratio of 27.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $136.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $144.55. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $119.02 and a 1-year high of $161.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.02. Paychex had a return on equity of 45.17% and a net margin of 27.85%.The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.16 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Monday, July 21st were issued a $1.08 dividend. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 21st. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 97.08%.

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.