F m Investments LLC Sells 859 Shares of Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

F m Investments LLC lessened its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 35.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,562 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 859 shares during the quarter. F m Investments LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $227,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. LGT Group Foundation raised its position in shares of Paychex by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 2,528 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Paychex by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,954 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,012,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. increased its stake in Paychex by 3.4% in the second quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 2,305 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in Paychex by 0.7% during the second quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 11,267 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,639,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC lifted its stake in Paychex by 40.6% during the second quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 263 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAYX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup assumed coverage on Paychex in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $139.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Paychex from $142.00 to $137.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Paychex from $153.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Paychex in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $132.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $139.87.

Paychex Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ PAYX opened at $111.79 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $108.00 and a 1 year high of $161.24. The firm has a market cap of $40.23 billion, a PE ratio of 25.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.93.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 27.85% and a return on equity of 45.17%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.16 EPS. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th were given a dividend of $1.08 per share. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 7th. 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.