J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Decreases Stake in Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG lessened its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 48.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,626 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 10,902 shares during the quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG’s holdings in Paychex were worth $1,691,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. grew its stake in Paychex by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. now owns 26,961 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,922,000 after buying an additional 1,701 shares in the last quarter. DMKC Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Paychex by 252.9% in the 2nd quarter. DMKC Advisory Services LLC now owns 11,896 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,705,000 after buying an additional 8,525 shares in the last quarter. Access Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Paychex by 0.9% in the second quarter. Access Financial Services Inc. now owns 10,947 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,592,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC grew its position in Paychex by 5.9% in the second quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 60,683 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,827,000 after acquiring an additional 3,383 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Paychex by 31.4% in the second quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,063 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $591,000 after acquiring an additional 972 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAYX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Argus cut their price objective on Paychex from $170.00 to $150.00 in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Paychex from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 target price on Paychex and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $130.00 target price on Paychex in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Paychex from $153.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Paychex has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $142.77.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,370 shares of Paychex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.92, for a total value of $1,755,550.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 81,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,602,669.60. The trade was a 13.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 97,526 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.17, for a total transaction of $14,157,849.42. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 446,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,878,940.89. This represents a 17.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Paychex Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of Paychex stock opened at $124.61 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $44.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.00, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $135.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $144.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Paychex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $119.02 and a twelve month high of $161.24.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.02. Paychex had a net margin of 27.85% and a return on equity of 45.17%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.16 earnings per share. Paychex’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Monday, July 21st were given a $1.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 21st. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Paychex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 97.08%.

Paychex Company Profile

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.