Sycomore Asset Management Grows Stock Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Sycomore Asset Management raised its holdings in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 12.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,325 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 719 shares during the quarter. Sycomore Asset Management’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $1,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 2.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,670,083 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,085,849,000 after purchasing an additional 198,008 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 5.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,902,520 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,420,028,000 after purchasing an additional 288,234 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 1.5% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,242,859 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,261,327,000 after purchasing an additional 77,187 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 18.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,576,575 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $855,287,000 after purchasing an additional 553,946 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing by 40.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,128,701 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $752,703,000 after purchasing an additional 905,043 shares during the last quarter. 80.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Joseph Desilva sold 1,904 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total transaction of $485,520.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 17,179 shares in the company, valued at $4,380,645. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 368 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.01, for a total value of $90,899.68. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 20,319 shares in the company, valued at $5,018,996.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Joseph Desilva sold 1,904 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total value of $485,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,380,645. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,162 shares of company stock worth $3,741,859 over the last quarter. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Automatic Data Processing Price Performance

ADP traded down $0.23 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $246.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,453,943 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,804,052. The firm has a market capitalization of $101.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.78. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $247.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $239.26. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a twelve month low of $201.46 and a twelve month high of $256.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.10 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $4.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 95.22% and a net margin of 19.14%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.96 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a $1.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.27%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.19%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Automatic Data Processing from $227.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $267.00 target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a report on Thursday, February 1st. StockNews.com lowered Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Bank of America raised Automatic Data Processing from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $217.00 to $243.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Automatic Data Processing from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $254.58.

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.