The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ:ADP). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 1.60% to 38.44 million shares with purchase of 0.61 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 9.28% valued currently at $8.45 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 1.1 million to 21.79 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 1.39% or 0.12 million shares – to 9.05 million shares.
With over 2.24 million Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $213.55 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $477.55 million. Currently, there are 414.30M common shares owned by the public and among those 410.16M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 21 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for ADP have a consensus price objective of $247.65. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $278.00 and a low of $213.00. The average price target is 13.83% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -0.26% over that period. But an upside of 23.18% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $249.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 229 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 100 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 647,754 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 129 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 554,630 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Automatic Data Processing Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 12.71 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $2.79 billion. The company bought an additional 93005.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.07% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 22745.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 9.61 million shares valued at over $2.11 billion and representing 2.32% of the shares outstanding. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF bought 11490.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 6.93 million shares at a value of $1.52 billion. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF now owns shares totaling to 1.67% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) opened at $212.82, down -$0.74 from a prior closing price of $213.56. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -5.31% and -17.88% over the past three months. ADP shares are trading -10.60% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 1.97% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $196.61 and touched a high of $274.92 over the same period. ADP has an average intraday trading volume of 1.92 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -4.31%, -6.90%, and -8.89% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) shares accounts for 81.90% of the company’s 414.30M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 40.82%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 41.39% and 2.28% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $90.73B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.82. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 28.37, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $7.53. The company has a PEG of 2.11 and a Quick Ratio of 1.00 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.00. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.03% over the week and 1.63% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) will achieve an EPS of $2.44 for the current quarter, $1.85 for the next quarter and $9 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $2.23 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $2.51. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $2.21 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 15.40%, and 10.93% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 13.43% over the next five years, compared to 12.00% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 21 brokerage firm advisors rate Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) as a “Hold” at a consensus score of 3.00. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 16 of the 21 advise that investors “hold,” and 3 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the ADP, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. BofA Securities stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on March 09, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $223. JP Morgan coverage for the Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) stock in a research note released on August 17, 2021 offered a Underweight rating with a price target of $224. Credit Suisse was of a view on August 16, 2021 that the stock is Neutral, while Citigroup gave the stock Neutral rating on August 11, 2021, issuing a price target of $212- $220. Mizuho on their part issued Buy rating on February 11, 2021.
