Somewhat Favorable News Coverage Somewhat Unlikely to Impact Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Share Price

Headlines about Automatic Data Processing (NYSE:ADP) have trended somewhat positive this week, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. The research group ranks the sentiment of news coverage by reviewing more than 20 million news and blog sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Automatic Data Processing earned a media sentiment score of 0.22 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media headlines about the business services provider an impact score of 46.5448177792949 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the next few days.

These are some of the news stories that may have effected Accern’s analysis:

• Automatic Data Processing (NYSE:ADP) Earns “Market Perform” Rating from BMO Capital Markets (americanbankingnews.com)
• Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Wells Fargo & Company (americanbankingnews.com)
• 13D Filing: Pershing Square and Automatic Data Processing Inc (ADP) (feedproxy.google.com)
• Validea Warren Buffett Strategy Daily Upgrade Report – 8/8/2017 – Nasdaq (nasdaq.com)
• Ackman is still battling for board seats at ADP – New York Post (nypost.com)

Shares of Automatic Data Processing (ADP) traded up 1.06% during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $109.66. The stock had a trading volume of 8,389,744 shares. Automatic Data Processing has a 12 month low of $85.48 and a 12 month high of $121.77. The stock has a market cap of $48.72 billion and a PE ratio of 28.48. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $104.36 and its 200-day moving average is $102.14. Automatic Data Processing also was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors purchased 15,090 put options on the company. This is an increase of 264% compared to the typical daily volume of 4,143 put options.

Automatic Data Processing (NYSE:ADP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The business services provider reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.02. Automatic Data Processing had a net margin of 17.24% and a return on equity of 59.56%. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Automatic Data Processing will post $3.82 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 8th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 7th.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ADP. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a report on Wednesday. Barclays PLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a report on Thursday, April 27th. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) cut Automatic Data Processing from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $108.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “hold” rating and set a $108.00 price objective (up from $103.00) on shares of Automatic Data Processing in a research note on Sunday, July 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.96.

In other Automatic Data Processing news, VP Donald Weinstein sold 1,933 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.98, for a total value of $197,127.34. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 25,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,624,659.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Carlos A. Rodriguez sold 36,363 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $3,999,930.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 146,494 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,114,340. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 90,620 shares of company stock worth $9,435,757.

Automatic Data Processing Company Profile

Automatic Data Processing, Inc (ADP) is a provider of human capital management (HCM) solutions to employers, offering solutions to businesses of various sizes. The Company also provides business process outsourcing solutions. Its segments include Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO) Services.