Paychex, Inc. $PAYX Shares Sold by Clarius Group LLC

Clarius Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 90 shares during the period. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Paychex were worth $677,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in Paychex by 118.5% during the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 136,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $21,117,000 after acquiring an additional 74,245 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Paychex by 32.6% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 119,291 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,404,000 after acquiring an additional 29,320 shares in the last quarter. Martin Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Paychex by 166.9% during the 2nd quarter. Martin Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,340 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $922,000 after acquiring an additional 3,965 shares in the last quarter. MWA Asset Management grew its stake in Paychex by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. MWA Asset Management now owns 4,269 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $659,000 after acquiring an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new stake in Paychex during the 1st quarter valued at about $832,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PAYX. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Paychex from $140.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Paychex from $148.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 price target on shares of Paychex and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Wolfe Research dropped their price target on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $140.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Argus dropped their price target on shares of Paychex from $170.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Thursday. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Paychex currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $142.77.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO John B. Gibson sold 12,370 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.92, for a total transaction of $1,755,550.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 81,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,602,669.60. The trade was a 13.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman Martin Mucci sold 97,526 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 10th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $64,878,940.89. This represents a 17.91% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Paychex Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $124.61 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $44.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.00, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $135.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $144.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Paychex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $119.02 and a fifty-two week high of $161.24.

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 30th. The business services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. Paychex had a net margin of 27.85% and a return on equity of 45.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.16 earnings per share. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Paychex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 21st were issued a $1.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 21st. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Paychex’s payout ratio is presently 97.08%.

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.