UMB Bank n.a. Trims Stock Holdings in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX)

UMB Bank n.a. lowered its holdings in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 112,093 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 3,094 shares during the quarter. UMB Bank n.a.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $17,294,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Clean Yield Group boosted its stake in shares of Paychex by 2.7% during the first quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 4,160 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $642,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the period. Joule Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Paychex in the 1st quarter valued at about $216,000. Sara Bay Financial grew its stake in Paychex by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Sara Bay Financial now owns 6,505 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $982,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Paychex by 85.0% during the first quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 10,210 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,575,000 after acquiring an additional 4,691 shares during the period. Finally, Permanent Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Paychex during the first quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PAYX has been the topic of several research reports. Cfra Research upgraded Paychex to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Paychex from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Paychex from $148.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Paychex from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Paychex from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Paychex currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $142.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph M. Velli sold 3,650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total value of $544,762.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 78,455 shares in the company, valued at $11,709,408.75. This represents a 4.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Paychex Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $159.78 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $150.26 and its 200 day moving average is $147.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Paychex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.40 and a 1 year high of $161.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.92.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The business services provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 32.02% and a return on equity of 45.28%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.38 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $1.08 dividend. This is a positive change from Paychex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.00%.

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.