Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 450 Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 450 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $105,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Heritage Investment Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Heritage Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $513,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. grew its position in Automatic Data Processing by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. now owns 8,863 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,065,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 1.1% in the third quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,151 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $999,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 4,580 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,067,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 6,886 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. 80.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ADP. Barclays upped their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Automatic Data Processing from $254.00 to $250.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $267.00 target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $227.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Automatic Data Processing currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $255.42.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Automatic Data Processing stock traded down $2.18 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $242.94. 1,133,452 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,774,157. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 52-week low of $205.53 and a 52-week high of $256.84. The company has a fifty day moving average of $245.29 and a 200-day moving average of $238.95.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $2.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.79 by $0.09. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 93.09% and a net margin of 19.56%. The firm had revenue of $5.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.52 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.50%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 368 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.01, for a total transaction of $90,899.68. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 20,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,018,996.19. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 368 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.01, for a total transaction of $90,899.68. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 20,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,018,996.19. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Joseph Desilva sold 1,904 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total transaction of $485,520.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,179 shares in the company, valued at $4,380,645. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,966 shares of company stock valued at $749,524 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

About Automatic Data Processing

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.