Securian Asset Management Inc. Decreases Stake in Paychex, Inc. $PAYX

Securian Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,671 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 305 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Paychex were worth $2,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Paychex by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,807,843 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,907,314,000 after purchasing an additional 286,818 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Paychex by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,782,173 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,663,474,000 after purchasing an additional 737,542 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Paychex by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,989,182 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $769,731,000 after purchasing an additional 181,628 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Paychex by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,135,296 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $637,993,000 after purchasing an additional 30,670 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. raised its position in shares of Paychex by 99.0% in the 1st quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,494,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $539,102,000 after purchasing an additional 1,738,372 shares during the last quarter. 83.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAYX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Paychex from $142.00 to $137.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Robert W. Baird reduced 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, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Paychex in a research report on Tuesday. They set an “underweight” rating and a $128.00 price target for the company. Argus reduced their price target on shares of Paychex from $170.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research reduced their price target on shares of Paychex from $145.00 to $140.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $140.47.

Paychex Price Performance

NASDAQ:PAYX opened at $127.54 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market cap of $45.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $132.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $142.49. Paychex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $119.02 and a 1-year 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 the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.16 EPS. Paychex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.428-5.528 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Paychex, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Paychex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $1.08 per share. This represents a $4.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 7th. Paychex’s payout ratio is 97.08%.

Paychex 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.