Paychex Inc (NASDAQ:PAYX) does about 1.65M shares in volume on a normal day but saw 2137401 shares change hands in the recent trading day. The company now has a market cap of 50.66B USD. Its current market price is $140.98, marking a decrease of -0.15% compared to the previous close of $141.19. The 52 week high reached by this stock is $150.71 whilst the lowest price level in 52 weeks is $114.72. The script in recent trading has seen the stock touch a high of $142 and a low of $122.
Paychex Inc (PAYX) has a 20-day trading average at $143.26 and the current price is -6.46% off the 52-week high compared with 22.89% distance from its 52-week low. The 50-day simple moving average of the closing price is $142.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $129.00. If we look at the stock’s price movements over the week, volatility stands at 1.79%, which decreases to 1.45% over 1 month. It is also key to look at other market indicators of price movement for the stock, where we see that the relative strength index (RSI) is at 42.90 to suggest the stock is neutral.
10 analysts observing the Paychex Inc (PAYX) stock have set the 12-month price targets for the company’s shares at between $122 and $142. The consensus objective for the share price is $138.92, suggesting that the stock has a potential downside of -1.48% over the period. The median price target is -7.62% away from the current levels at $131.
FactSet Research has provided data showing that 10 brokerages have issued ratings for the stock. 1 analysts have rated it as a sell, while 0 advise that it is a overweight. 1 analysts have rated it as a buy and 8 have advised that investors hold their positions. The consensus recommendation rating is Hold and Wall Street’s advice is for investors to Hold the stock.
The company shares received a number of brokerage firm price updates over the past month, with the latest being on December 22, 2023 when TD Cowen downgraded the stock to “Market Perform” and issued a price target of between $132 and $123. Barclays upgraded the stock to “Equal Weight” from Underweight on December 14, 2023 at a price target of $107-$126. UBS initiated its price target at $120.
The current price level is -1.59%, -1.11%, and 9.29% away from its SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200 respectively, with the PAYX price moving above the 50-day SMA on current market day. Paychex Inc (PAYX) stock is down -1.32% over the week and -3.79% over the past month. Its price is 18.36% year-to-date and 10.04% over the past year.
The company’s next earnings report forecasts estimating quarterly EPS at 1.12 and 4.98 for whole year. Expected sales for next quarter are $1.51B, which analysts say will come at $5.52B for the current fiscal year and next year at $5.82B. In addition, estimates put the company’s current quarterly revenue at an average of $1.31B.
Its 12-month price target is $131. To reach the target analysts have set, the stock logically needs to shrink -1.48 percent from here. Of course, the average price target is just what the average analysts believe a stock will be worth in the next 52 weeks, and is only one metric. There are analysts with lower targets than the average, including one bearish Wall Street research firm advocating investors to wait for the price to pull back to $122, given the recent momentum. And then, on the bullish side of things, one analyst is expecting the stock to peak at $142.
Outstanding shares total 359.90M with insiders holding 10.65% of the shares and institutional holders owning 80.43% of the company’s common stock. The company has a return on investment of 36.15% and return on equity of 45.67%. The price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) amounts to 30.03 while the forward price to earnings ratio is 26.71. The beta has a value of 0.99. Price to book ratio is 13.18 and price to sales ratio is 9.54.
