Paychex (PAYX) Down After Earnings Disappoint

By Emilio Sanchez • Thursday, December 22 12:03 • Permanent Link

PAYX investors were likely spooked this afternoon by Barrons's report: "Paychex reported better-than-expected earnings overall for its latest quarter, but posted a miss for a key segment." For more coverage, read the full article here. On the back of this news, Paychex sank -3.3% to a price of $110.93. Are the markets overreacting?

Paychex, Inc. provides integrated human capital management solutions for human resources (HR), payroll, benefits, and insurance services for small to medium-sized businesses in the United States, Europe, and India. The company belongs to the Industrials sector, which has an average price to earnings (P/E) ratio of 21.46 and an average price to book (P/B) ratio of 3.7. In contrast, Paychex has a trailing 12 month P/E ratio of 38.0 and a P/B ratio of 13.4.

At today's price of $110.93 per share, Paychex is -12.51% away from its target price of $126.79, and on average, analysts give the stock a rating of hold. 3.0% of the company's shares are linked to short positions, and 73.2% of the shares are owned by institutional investors.

The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.