Caprock Group LLC Boosts Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 3.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,450 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 803 shares during the quarter. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $5,965,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Accredited Investors Inc. boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 4,431.5% during the 3rd quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 2,315,295 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $640,712,000 after acquiring an additional 2,264,202 shares in the last quarter. BlueSpruce Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the 1st quarter worth $365,757,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Automatic Data Processing by 28,478.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,194,587 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,305,780,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190,407 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 238.1% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 784,003 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $195,797,000 after purchasing an additional 552,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Automatic Data Processing by 242.4% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 644,135 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $153,749,000 after purchasing an additional 456,027 shares in the last quarter. 80.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ADP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com lowered Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Automatic Data Processing from $267.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $281.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $289.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Michael A. Bonarti sold 26,442 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.96, for a total transaction of $7,164,724.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 88,426 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,959,908.96. This represents a 23.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Don Mcguire sold 3,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.38, for a total value of $872,254.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 41,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,440,548.48. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 97,792 shares of company stock worth $27,691,708. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Automatic Data Processing Stock Performance

ADP opened at $297.89 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $287.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $264.53. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 1 year low of $227.12 and a 1 year high of $309.37. The stock has a market cap of $121.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $4.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.77 billion. Automatic Data Processing had a return on equity of 82.36% and a net margin of 19.72%. Automatic Data Processing’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.08 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $1.54 dividend. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This is a positive change from Automatic Data Processing’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is presently 65.74%.

About Automatic Data Processing

Automatic Data Processing, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions.