Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Grows Position in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lifted its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 101,295 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,540 shares during the period. Automatic Data Processing makes up about 0.8% of Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $29,652,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Dunhill Financial LLC grew its position in Automatic Data Processing by 346.5% in the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 106 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Automatic Data Processing in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on ADP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Automatic Data Processing has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $296.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Christopher D’ambrosio sold 473 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.20, for a total value of $144,832.60. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,244 shares in the company, valued at $2,218,112.80. This represents a 6.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Brian L. Michaud sold 362 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.83, for a total value of $106,366.46. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 13,706 shares in the company, valued at $4,027,233.98. This represents a 2.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,951 shares of company stock worth $1,762,074. 0.21% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ ADP opened at $298.79 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $121.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.76. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $302.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $295.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 12-month low of $231.27 and a 12-month high of $322.84.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The business services provider reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.05. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.76% and a return on equity of 80.86%. Equities research analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.93 EPS for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.54 per share. This represents a $6.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Automatic Data Processing’s payout ratio is currently 64.23%.

Automatic Data Processing Company Profile

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.