Hills Bank & Trust Co Cuts Stake in Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP)

Hills Bank & Trust Co lowered its position in shares of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,394 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 162 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Automatic Data Processing were worth $1,257,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 22,539.4% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 934,326 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $217,670,000 after acquiring an additional 930,199 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 40.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,128,701 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $752,703,000 after acquiring an additional 905,043 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 65.5% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,402,511 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $337,416,000 after acquiring an additional 555,184 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Automatic Data Processing by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,576,575 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $855,287,000 after acquiring an additional 553,946 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Automatic Data Processing in the 3rd quarter valued at about $107,401,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ADP. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $267.00 price objective on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $265.00 to $272.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Bank of America raised shares of Automatic Data Processing from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $217.00 to $243.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $254.00 to $250.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Automatic Data Processing from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $255.42.

Automatic Data Processing Trading Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ ADP traded up $2.21 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $245.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,020,238 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,765,245. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. has a 52-week low of $205.53 and a 52-week high of $256.84. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $245.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $238.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.78.

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $2.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.79 by $0.09. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 19.56% and a return on equity of 93.09%. The firm had revenue of $5.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.52 earnings per share. Automatic Data Processing’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Automatic Data Processing, Inc. will post 9.15 EPS for the current year.

Automatic Data Processing Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. Automatic Data Processing’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.50%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Joseph Desilva sold 1,904 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total transaction of $485,520.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 17,179 shares in the company, valued at $4,380,645. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, VP Joseph Desilva sold 1,904 shares of Automatic Data Processing stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total transaction of $485,520.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 17,179 shares in the company, valued at $4,380,645. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Sreenivasa Kutam sold 368 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.01, for a total transaction of $90,899.68. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 20,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,018,996.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,966 shares of company stock worth $749,524 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

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.