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Payroll, HR and benefits-administration outsourcing provider mainly for small and mid-sized US businesses.
Payroll, HR and benefits-administration outsourcing provider mainly for small and mid-sized US businesses.
Charges businesses a fee for each pay run and employee, plus fees for HR and benefits services, and also earns interest on client money it holds between collecting payroll funds and paying employees and tax authorities. Buying Paycor, a payroll software provider for mid-sized employers, in 2025 moved it further beyond its small-business base.
Moat: narrow (switching costs, scale, distribution). Payroll/compliance data is sticky once embedded; broad small-business sales network.
Headquarters: Rochester, New York, US · Founded: 1971 · Employees: 17,600
Size Paychex (PAYX) is a United States Industrials company (Data Processing Services) with a market value of $41.7B, the 290th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $117.06 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 26.2%, against -6.8% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — highest of 19 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 14.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +11.3%); the operating margin is 44.5% (peer median 14.9%).
Valuation It trades at 19.3× forward earnings against a peer median of 20.1× (9th cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 3% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +10%, so the hurdle is -7 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 23.1 points above its cost of capital (8.5% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $90.8M at 31 Aug 2026, up 1% on a year earlier — 0.0 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit Paychex has 3 bonds outstanding ($4.20B), rated BBB+ by the agencies and trading like BBB at a weighted spread of 98 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 5.8% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 17 Dec 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $6.60B | $6.51B | $5.57B | $5.28B | $5.01B |
| Revenue growth | — | +17% | +6% | +5% | — |
| Gross profit | $4.73B | $4.60B | $4.03B | $3.80B | $3.55B |
| EBITDA | $3.38B | $3.24B | $2.58B | $2.35B | $2.21B |
| Net income | $1.81B | $1.76B | $1.66B | $1.69B | $1.56B |
| Free cash flow | $2.02B | $2.32B | $1.66B | $1.74B | $1.56B |
| Capital expenditure | $269M | $277M | $222M | $192M | $153M |
| Total debt | $4.62B | $4.63B | $5.04B | $886M | $886M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paychex PAYX | $41.7B | +26% | +14% | 44% | 19.3× | 3.2% |
| Automatic Data Processing ADP | $120B | +44% | +6% | 27% | 24.0× | 6.6% |
| Insperity NSP | $1.90B | +53% | +2% | 0% | 19.9× | 19.5% |
| TriNet TNET | $3.05B | +56% | -4% | 6% | 15.1× | -3.3% |
Peer set: Sector in the same market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | PAYX | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +12.1% | +0.1% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +26.2% | -6.8% | highest of 19 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -8.5% | -21.6% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +14.0% | +11.3% | 7th highest of 20 |
| Operating margin | 44.5% | 14.9% | highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 19.3× | 20.1× | 9th cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 3.2% | 12.4% | 2nd least demanding of 18 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +9.9% | +8.7% | 8th highest of 18 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -6.7 pp | +3.3 pp | 4th least demanding of 18 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +23.1 pp | +0.8 pp | 3rd highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 13.4× | 15.9× | 5th cheapest of 20 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.1× | 1.9× | 6th least indebted of 20 |
| Bond spread | 98 bp | 76 bp | 2nd widest of 12 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paychex PAYX | United States | $41.7B | +26% | +14% | 44% | 19.3× | 3.2% | +9.9% |
| Rockwell Automation ROK | United States | $41.7B | -17% | +11% | 14% | 25.0× | 27.2% | +5.7% |
| Carrier Global CARR | United States | $42.9B | -22% | +3% | 9% | 17.2× | 19.0% | +4.5% |
| HEICO HEI | United States | $39.2B | +14% | +21% | 24% | 47.8× | 24.5% | +20.2% |
| Ferguson Enterprises FERG | United States | $45.2B | -3% | +8% | 10% | 19.4× | 9.9% | +9.1% |
| Vylor VYLR | United States | $46.8B | n/a | +3% | 15% | 25.6× | 26.2% | +2.9% |
| United Airlines UAL | United States | $36.6B | +13% | +12% | 6% | 13.6× | 7.8% | +30.9% |
| Wabtec WAB | United States | $47.6B | +7% | +13% | 18% | 23.8× | 17.0% | +8.1% |
| L3Harris LHX | United States | $48.4B | -13% | +7% | 12% | 20.1× | 7.0% | +3.7% |
| Honeywell Aerospace HONA | United States | $48.5B | n/a | n/a | 20% | 18.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Comfort Systems USA FIX | United States | $35.6B | -48% | +51% | 17% | 16.2× | 12.4% | +26.1% |
| Old Dominion ODFL | United States | $34.2B | -17% | +4% | 27% | 24.9× | 15.7% | +6.5% |
| Bloom Energy BE | United States | $51.2B | -21% | +111% | 15% | 36.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Ametek AME | United States | $52.4B | -1% | +14% | 27% | 24.8× | 18.5% | +10.3% |
| Paccar PCAR | United States | $53.7B | -11% | -1% | 11% | 15.4× | 11.2% | +8.7% |
| Elbit Systems ESLT | United States | $32.0B | -13% | +12% | 9% | 46.5× | 10.1% | +11.5% |
| Ingersoll Rand IR | United States | $31.9B | +10% | +8% | 19% | 21.8× | 17.3% | +14.0% |
| Rocket Lab RKLB | United States | $31.8B | -50% | +53% | -29% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Sunbelt Rentals SUNB | United States | $31.6B | +5% | +3% | 21% | 17.7× | 8.8% | +4.9% |
| Delta Air Lines DAL | United States | $57.4B | +19% | +14% | 7% | 13.4× | 9.9% | +30.0% |
| Otis Worldwide OTIS | United States | $30.1B | +6% | +6% | 15% | 18.1× | 2.3% | +2.5% |
Paychex has 3 bonds outstanding with $4.20B face value. The agencies rate it BBB+; its bonds trade like BBB. Weighted yield 5.62%, a spread of 98 bp over government bonds.
Paychex reported $90.8M of remaining performance obligations at 31 Aug 2026, up 1% from a year earlier. That is 0.0 years of trailing revenue already under contract.