Financial Avengers Inc. Trims Stock Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Financial Avengers Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 5.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 859 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 54 shares during the quarter. Financial Avengers Inc.’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $251,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ADP. Littlejohn Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the fourth quarter valued at about $708,000. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Automatic Data Processing by 46.8% during the fourth quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,239 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032 shares during the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 33.3% in the 4th quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,926 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,161,000 after buying an additional 7,734 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 155,934 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $45,647,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787 shares during the period. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN increased its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 13,677 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,004,000 after acquiring an additional 985 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on ADP. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $296.00 to $298.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $303.55.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Down 0.0%

ADP opened at $322.80 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $299.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $300.53. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $231.27 and a fifty-two week high of $323.17. The company has a market cap of $131.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $3.06 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.09. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.76% and a return on equity of 80.86%. The company had revenue of $5.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.88 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.54 per share. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.05%.

Insider Activity at Automatic Data Processing

In related news, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.38, for a total transaction of $458,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 12,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,686,852.74. This represents a 11.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Christopher D’ambrosio sold 478 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.14, for a total transaction of $140,120.92. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 7,364 shares in the company, valued at $2,158,682.96. The trade was a 6.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,451 shares of company stock worth $743,024. 0.21% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Automatic Data Processing Profile

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.