Stocks · Technology · Software - Application
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. ADP
$257.68 -2.38% Close, Oct 2, 2026 · NASDAQ · Market cap $103.00B
Low risk
Next earnings report: Oct 28, 2026
Scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move. Daily prices adjusted for splits. Markers: E = earnings (green beat, red miss), S = split, D = dividend.
Three things to know
- Earnings beat analyst estimates in each of the last 14 quarters (average surprise over the last four: +2.0%).
- The shares trade at 23.5× trailing earnings, lower than 95% of the company's own readings over the past five years.
- Operating margin narrowed to 18.6% from 26.3% a year earlier.
PromtFinance scores
Each score is a percentile within the Technology sector (0–100). Under each score: how the stock ranks in its sector on every component. As of Oct 5, 2026.
Growth29Very weak
How fast revenue, earnings and cash flow are growing.
- Revenue growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 33%
- EPS growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 44%
- FCF growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 34%
- Revenue growth, 3-year CAGRBottom 50%
- Revenue growth accelerationBottom 41%
Quality65Positive
Returns on capital, margins, earnings quality and balance-sheet strength.
- Return on invested capitalTop 6%
- Gross marginBottom 46%
- Operating marginTop 17%
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Bottom 26%
- Accruals (lower is better)Bottom 20%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Top 46%
- Interest coverTop 31%
Value78Positive
How cheap the shares are relative to earnings, cash flow and their own history.
- Earnings yieldTop 21%
- Free-cash-flow yieldTop 36%
- EBITDA / enterprise valueTop 29%
- Sales / enterprise valueBottom 45%
- P/E vs own 5-year history (lower is better)Top 12%
Momentum48Neutral
Strength and persistence of the price trend, including versus the S&P 500.
- 12-month return excluding last monthBottom 45%
- 6-month returnTop 49%
- 1-year return vs S&P 500Bottom 38%
- Distance from 52-week highTop 23%
- Trend checklist (0–4)Bottom 40%
Revisions18Very weak
Earnings surprises and analyst sentiment (estimate-revision history is being collected).
- Average EPS surprise, last 4 quartersBottom 27%
- Consecutive EPS beatsTop 9%
- Share of analysts rating BuyBottom 4%
- Upside to consensus price targetBottom 21%
Stability96Exceptional
Low volatility, shallow drawdowns, low market sensitivity and modest leverage.
- Volatility, 60 days (lower is better)Top 4%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 yearsTop 14%
- Beta vs S&P 500 (lower is better)Top 5%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Top 46%
What changed
Latest four quarters versus the same period a year earlier (growth: versus one quarter earlier).
| Measure | Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 6.9% | 6.7% | ↓ |
| EPS growth (YoY) | 9.7% | 9.6% | ↓ |
| Gross margin | 50.5% | 48.2% | ↓ |
| Operating margin | 26.3% | 18.6% | ↓ |
| FCF margin | 23.2% | 22.7% | ↓ |
Fundamental momentum
| Measure | Now (TTM) | Year / quarter before | Sector rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (TTM, YoY) | 6.7% | 6.9% | ↓ | Bottom 33% |
| EPS growth (TTM, YoY) | 9.6% | 9.7% | ↓ | Bottom 44% |
| Gross margin | 48.2% | 50.5% | ↓ | Bottom 46% |
| Operating margin | 18.6% | 26.3% | ↓ | Top 17% |
| Net margin | 20.1% | 19.8% | ↑ | — |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 22.7% | 23.2% | ↓ | — |
| Return on invested capital | 23.9% | — | Top 6% | |
| Revenue growth, 3-year CAGR | 6.8% | — | Bottom 50% |
Quality of earnings and balance sheet
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Above 1× means profits are backed by cash.
- 1.21×
- Accruals (net income − OCF) / assetsLower is better; high accruals can signal weaker earnings quality.
- -1.4%
- Stock-based compensation / revenueA cost to shareholders through dilution.
- 1.1%
- Receivables growth vs revenue growthReceivables growing much faster than sales can be a warning.
- -8.4 pp
- Net debt / EBITDABelow 1× is conservative; above 3× is high leverage.
- 0.16×
- Interest cover (operating income / interest)How many times operating profit covers interest.
- 8.9×
Shareholder returns
- Dividend yield (dividends paid, TTM)
- 2.55%
- Net buyback yield (TTM)
- 2.00%
- Shareholder yield
- 4.55%
- Share count change, 1 year
- -2.0%
- Share count change, 3-year CAGR
- -1.2%
Shareholder yield = dividends + net buybacks over the last four quarters, divided by market cap.
Based on the four quarters through Jun 30, 2026 (filed Aug 5, 2026).
Earnings and expectations
Earnings momentum
- Consecutive EPS beats
- 14
- Beats in the last 8 reports
- 8 of 8
- Average EPS surprise, last 4
- +2.0%
- Average 2-day reaction, last 8
- +1.0%
- Positive 20 days after report
- 5 of 8
Analysts
- Consensus price target
- $267.67
- Target vs current price
- +3.9%
- Analysts with a rating
- 36
- Share rating Buy or Strong Buy
- 22%
- Consensus rating
- Hold
How the stock reacted to recent reports
| Report date | EPS surprise | 2 days | 5 days | 20 days | 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 29, 2026 | +1.9% | +3.5% | +2.4% | +7.0% | — |
| Apr 29, 2026 | +2.1% | +8.0% | +5.7% | +9.3% | +25.6% |
| Jan 28, 2026 | +1.9% | -1.5% | -7.6% | -15.8% | -22.0% |
| Oct 29, 2025 | +2.0% | -6.6% | -7.3% | -8.3% | -7.7% |
| Jul 30, 2025 | +1.3% | +0.7% | -3.0% | -1.7% | -8.0% |
| Apr 30, 2025 | +3.0% | +1.6% | +2.6% | +9.6% | +4.3% |
| Jan 29, 2025 | +2.2% | +0.8% | +2.1% | +4.4% | -1.3% |
| Oct 30, 2024 | +5.4% | +1.7% | +1.1% | +7.0% | +3.6% |
Returns from the close before each report. Past reactions do not determine future ones.
Earnings history
| Report date | EPS | Estimate | Surprise | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 29, 2026 | $2.64 | $2.59 | +1.9% | $5.47B |
| Apr 29, 2026 | $3.37 | $3.30 | +2.1% | $5.94B |
| Jan 28, 2026 | $2.62 | $2.57 | +1.9% | $5.36B |
| Oct 29, 2025 | $2.49 | $2.44 | +2.0% | $5.18B |
| Jul 30, 2025 | $2.26 | $2.23 | +1.3% | $5.13B |
| Apr 30, 2025 | $3.06 | $2.97 | +3.0% | $5.55B |
| Jan 29, 2025 | $2.35 | $2.30 | +2.2% | $5.05B |
| Oct 30, 2024 | $2.33 | $2.21 | +5.4% | $4.83B |
Valuation in context
| Multiple | Now | 5-year median | 5-year percentile | Sector rank (cheapness) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P/E (trailing) | 23.5× | 30.2× | 5th | Top 21% |
| P/E (forward) | 21.0× | — | — | — |
| EV / EBITDA | 16.4× | — | — | Top 29% |
| EV / Sales | 4.74× | — | — | Bottom 45% |
| Free-cash-flow yield | 4.83% | — | — | Top 36% |
| Earnings yield | 4.25% | — | — | Top 21% |
P/E over the past five years
Range 19.8× – 35.5× since Jun 30, 2021. Each point: price on the filing date divided by trailing-twelve-month EPS known then.
What moved the stock over the past year
- Price return, 1 year
- -11.6%
- Earnings per share growth (TTM)
- +9.6%
- Change in P/E multiple
- -18.3%
Most of the move came from a change in the valuation multiple.
Technical state
Trend checklist
- ✗ Price above 20-day average
- ✗ Price above 50-day average
- ✓ Price above 200-day average
- ✓ 50-day average above 200-day
- ✗ MACD histogram positive
Trend quality
- Days above the 50-day average
- 0
- Days above the 200-day average
- 63
- 50-day average slope (20 days)
- +4.1%
- 200-day average slope (20 days)
- +0.5%
- Distance from 50-day average
- -5.0%
- Distance from 200-day average
- +8.3%
- RSI (14)
- 37.4
- Relative volume
- 0.96×
Risk and drawdowns
- Volatility, 60 days (annualized)
- 27.7%
- Volatility vs own 5-year history
- 77th percentile · Normal for this stock
- Beta vs S&P 500 (2 years, weekly)
- 0.54
- Correlation with S&P 500
- 0.34
- Current drawdown from 1-year high
- -12.0%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 years
- -42.2%
Largest declines in the past six years
| From peak | To low | Decline | Length | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 6, 2025 | Apr 10, 2026 | -42.2% | 211 days | Not yet recovered |
| Dec 2, 2022 | May 31, 2023 | -22.6% | 122 days | 311 days (Aug 26, 2024) |
| Dec 29, 2021 | Feb 23, 2022 | -20.8% | 38 days | 114 days (Aug 8, 2022) |
| Aug 18, 2022 | Oct 12, 2022 | -14.1% | 38 days | 29 days (Nov 22, 2022) |
| Mar 3, 2025 | Apr 8, 2025 | -13.1% | 26 days | 27 days (May 16, 2025) |
Declines of 10% or more from a closing high, measured on daily closes.
Financial statements
- Market cap
- $103.00B
- P/E (TTM)
- 23.5
- EPS, diluted (TTM)
- $10.95
- Revenue (TTM)
- $21.95B
- Dividend yield
- 2.64%
- 52-week range
- $188.16 – $293.51
| FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | FY 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $16.50B | $18.01B | $19.20B | $20.56B | $21.95B |
| Gross profit | $7.73B | $8.81B | $9.59B | $10.45B | $10.58B |
| Operating income | $3.80B | $4.51B | $4.94B | $5.41B | $4.08B |
| Net income | $2.95B | $3.41B | $3.75B | $4.08B | $4.41B |
| EPS (diluted) | $7.00 | $8.21 | $9.10 | $9.98 | $10.95 |
| Q1 2025 | Q2 2025 | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 | Q4 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.83B | $5.05B | $5.55B | $5.13B | $5.18B | $5.36B | $5.94B | $5.47B |
| Net income | $956.3M | $963.2M | $1.25B | $910.6M | $1.01B | $1.06B | $1.36B | $978.6M |
| EPS (diluted) | $2.34 | $2.36 | $3.06 | $2.23 | $2.49 | $2.63 | $3.38 | $2.45 |
| FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | FY 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | $3.10B | $4.21B | $4.16B | $4.94B | $5.44B |
| Capital expenditure | -$553.4M | -$571.6M | -$563.4M | -$168.7M | -$196.6M |
| Free cash flow | $2.55B | $3.64B | $3.59B | $4.77B | $5.24B |
| Dividends paid | -$1.66B | -$1.90B | -$2.18B | -$2.40B | -$2.63B |
| Net share buybacks | -$1.97B | -$1.03B | -$1.23B | -$1.15B | -$2.08B |
Cash outflows are shown as negative numbers.
- Cash and short-term investments
- $4.23B
- Total assets
- $63.19B
- Total liabilities
- $57.16B
- Total debt
- $5.27B
- Net debt
- $1.04B
- Shareholders’ equity
- $6.03B
As of Jun 30, 2026 (filed Aug 5, 2026).
Dividends
| Ex-date | Amount | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 11, 2026 | $1.70 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Jun 12, 2026 | $1.70 | Jul 1, 2026 |
| Mar 13, 2026 | $1.70 | Apr 1, 2026 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | $1.70 | Jan 1, 2026 |
| Sep 12, 2025 | $1.54 | Oct 1, 2025 |
| Jun 13, 2025 | $1.54 | Jul 1, 2025 |
| Mar 14, 2025 | $1.54 | Apr 1, 2025 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | $1.54 | Jan 1, 2025 |
Short interest
- Shares sold short
- 10,508,337
- Days to cover
- 5.26
- Change vs previous report
- -2.5%
FINRA short interest, settlement date Sep 15, 2026.
Stock splits
- Oct 1, 2014
- 1,139-for-1,000
- Apr 2, 2007
- 10,000-for-9,033
- Jan 4, 1999
- 2-for-1
- Jan 2, 1996
- 2-for-1
- May 1, 1991
- 2-for-1