Market Update: Automatic Data Processing Inc (NASDAQ:ADP) – ADP Small Business Report: Small Business Employment Increased by 95,000 Jobs in December

[Marketwired] – Private sector small business employment increased by 95,000 jobs from November to December according to the December ADP Small Business Report®. Due to the important contribution that small businesses … Read more on this. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) , currently valued at $37.53B, started trading this morning at $81.08. Today, shares have traded between $80.88 and $81.71 per share with the price of the stock fluctuating between $64.29 to $90.67 over the last 52 weeks. ADP shares are currently priced at 25.31x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 24.19x earnings multiple for the same period. And for income investors, the company pays shareholders $2.12 per share annually in dividends, yielding 2.50%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 20 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.72 per share, which would be $0.02 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.01 sequential decrease. The full-year EPS estimate is $3.25, which would be a $0.36 better than last year. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $2.81 Billion. If realized, that would be a 5.64% increase over the year-ago quarter. Recently, Stifel downgraded ADP from Buy to Hold (Dec 5, 2014). Previously, Topeka Capital Markets Initiated ADP at to Sell. The average price target for ADP shares by the analysts covering the stock is $88.46, which is 9.10% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NASDAQ:ADP) Similar Articles: Company Update: Automatic Data Processing Inc (NASDAQ:ADP) – ADP Small Business Report: Small Business Employment Increased by 85,000 Jobs in August Stock Update: Automatic Data Processing Inc (NASDAQ:ADP) – Florida Added 13,700 Private Sector Jobs in July, According to ADP Regional Employment Report(R) Company Update: Automatic Data Processing Inc (NASDAQ:ADP) – ADP Small Business Report: Small Business Employment Increased by 59,000 Jobs in July