Barry C. Mccarthy Purchases 2,820 Shares of Deluxe Co. (NYSE:DLX) Stock

Deluxe Co. (NYSE:DLX) CEO Barry C. Mccarthy acquired 2,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $19.08 per share, for a total transaction of $53,805.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 178,670 shares in the company, valued at $3,409,023.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Deluxe Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of DLX stock opened at $19.83 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $876.68 million, a PE ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.47. Deluxe Co. has a 1 year low of $16.00 and a 1 year high of $24.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $537.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $537.90 million. Deluxe had a return on equity of 20.90% and a net margin of 1.78%. Deluxe’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. Research analysts predict that Deluxe Co. will post 2.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Deluxe Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.05%. Deluxe’s dividend payout ratio is presently 155.85%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Deluxe from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th.

Institutional Trading of Deluxe

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Deluxe during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in Deluxe in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Ariadne Wealth Management LP purchased a new stake in Deluxe in the second quarter worth $35,000. CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Deluxe by 555.6% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,757 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Security National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Deluxe during the second quarter valued at $40,000. 93.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Deluxe

Deluxe Corporation provides technology-enabled solutions to enterprises, small businesses, and financial institutions in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It operates through Merchant Services, B2B Payments, Data Solutions, and Print segments. The Merchant Services offers credit and debit card authorization and payment systems, as well as processing services primarily to small and medium-sized retail and service businesses.