Stocks · Industrials · Staffing & Employment Services
Paychex, Inc. PAYX
$98.94 -1.88% Close, Oct 2, 2026 · NASDAQ · Market cap $35.19B
High qualityLow risk
Next earnings report: Dec 18, 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
- At 19.7× trailing earnings, the shares trade at the lowest P/E of the company's past five years.
- Earnings beat analyst estimates in each of the last 5 quarters (average surprise over the last four: +1.8%).
- Revenue over the last four quarters was $6.60B, up 14.0% from a year earlier, slowing from 16.9% a quarter earlier.
PromtFinance scores
Each score is a percentile within the Industrials sector (0–100). Under each score: how the stock ranks in its sector on every component. As of Oct 5, 2026.
Growth52Neutral
How fast revenue, earnings and cash flow are growing.
- Revenue growth (TTM, YoY)Top 31%
- EPS growth (TTM, YoY)Top 44%
- FCF growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 46%
- Revenue growth, 3-year CAGRTop 32%
- Revenue growth accelerationBottom 15%
Quality93Exceptional
Returns on capital, margins, earnings quality and balance-sheet strength.
- Return on invested capitalTop 5%
- Gross marginTop 2%
- Operating marginTop 1%
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Bottom 32%
- Accruals (lower is better)Bottom 37%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Top 39%
- Interest coverTop 26%
Value76Positive
How cheap the shares are relative to earnings, cash flow and their own history.
- Earnings yieldTop 19%
- Free-cash-flow yieldTop 25%
- EBITDA / enterprise valueTop 31%
- Sales / enterprise valueBottom 13%
- P/E vs own 5-year history (lower is better)Top 6%
Momentum40Weak
Strength and persistence of the price trend, including versus the S&P 500.
- 12-month return excluding last monthBottom 40%
- 6-month returnTop 44%
- 1-year return vs S&P 500Bottom 25%
- Distance from 52-week highTop 45%
- Trend checklist (0–4)Bottom 40%
Revisions19Very weak
Earnings surprises and analyst sentiment (estimate-revision history is being collected).
- Average EPS surprise, last 4 quartersBottom 38%
- Consecutive EPS beatsTop 24%
- Share of analysts rating BuyBottom 5%
- Upside to consensus price targetBottom 21%
Stability83Strong
Low volatility, shallow drawdowns, low market sensitivity and modest leverage.
- Volatility, 60 days (lower is better)Top 32%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 yearsTop 42%
- Beta vs S&P 500 (lower is better)Top 7%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Top 39%
What changed
Latest four quarters versus the same period a year earlier (growth: versus one quarter earlier).
| Measure | Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 16.9% | 14.0% | ↓ |
| EPS growth (YoY) | 6.8% | 13.0% | ↑ |
| Gross margin | 72.8% | 74.4% | ↑ |
| Operating margin | 38.0% | 39.2% | ↑ |
| FCF margin | 33.2% | 30.5% | ↓ |
Fundamental momentum
| Measure | Now (TTM) | Year / quarter before | Sector rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (TTM, YoY) | 14.0% | 16.9% | ↓ | Top 31% |
| EPS growth (TTM, YoY) | 13.0% | 6.8% | ↑ | Top 44% |
| Gross margin | 74.4% | 72.8% | ↑ | Top 2% |
| Operating margin | 39.2% | 38.0% | ↑ | Top 1% |
| Net margin | 27.4% | 27.9% | ↓ | — |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 30.5% | 33.2% | ↓ | — |
| Return on invested capital | 21.1% | — | Top 5% | |
| Revenue growth, 3-year CAGR | 9.2% | — | Top 32% |
Quality of earnings and balance sheet
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Above 1× means profits are backed by cash.
- 1.25×
- Accruals (net income − OCF) / assetsLower is better; high accruals can signal weaker earnings quality.
- -2.8%
- Stock-based compensation / revenueA cost to shareholders through dilution.
- 1.0%
- Receivables growth vs revenue growthReceivables growing much faster than sales can be a warning.
- +2.6 pp
- Net debt / EBITDABelow 1× is conservative; above 3× is high leverage.
- 1.31×
- Interest cover (operating income / interest)How many times operating profit covers interest.
- 9.7×
Shareholder returns
- Dividend yield (dividends paid, TTM)
- 4.62%
- Net buyback yield (TTM)
- 1.34%
- Shareholder yield
- 5.96%
- Share count change, 1 year
- -1.5%
- Share count change, 3-year CAGR
- -0.6%
Shareholder yield = dividends + net buybacks over the last four quarters, divided by market cap.
Based on the four quarters through Aug 31, 2026 (filed Sep 24, 2026).
Earnings and expectations
Earnings momentum
- Consecutive EPS beats
- 5
- Beats in the last 8 reports
- 7 of 8
- Average EPS surprise, last 4
- +1.8%
- Average 2-day reaction, last 8
- -1.8%
- Positive 20 days after report
- 3 of 7
Analysts
- Consensus price target
- $111.00
- Target vs current price
- +12.2%
- Analysts with a rating
- 31
- Share rating Buy or Strong Buy
- 16%
- Consensus rating
- Hold
How the stock reacted to recent reports
| Report date | EPS surprise | 2 days | 5 days | 20 days | 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 23, 2026 | +1.5% | -8.8% | -13.3% | — | — |
| Jun 24, 2026 | +0.8% | -1.7% | +0.3% | +13.0% | +18.9% |
| Mar 25, 2026 | +2.4% | +3.0% | +1.7% | +3.1% | +8.4% |
| Dec 19, 2025 | +2.4% | -1.7% | -0.0% | -6.0% | -20.7% |
| Sep 30, 2025 | +1.7% | -1.4% | -3.2% | -2.7% | -11.2% |
| Jun 25, 2025 | +0.0% | -9.4% | -3.2% | -4.6% | -13.9% |
| Mar 26, 2025 | +0.7% | +4.2% | +7.3% | -0.6% | +3.5% |
| Dec 19, 2024 | +0.9% | +1.4% | +5.0% | +7.2% | +8.6% |
Returns from the close before each report. Past reactions do not determine future ones.
Earnings history
| Report date | EPS | Estimate | Surprise | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 23, 2026 | $1.34 | $1.32 | +1.5% | $1.63B |
| Jun 24, 2026 | $1.32 | $1.31 | +0.8% | $1.61B |
| Mar 25, 2026 | $1.71 | $1.67 | +2.4% | $1.81B |
| Dec 19, 2025 | $1.26 | $1.23 | +2.4% | $1.56B |
| Sep 30, 2025 | $1.22 | $1.20 | +1.7% | $1.54B |
| Jun 25, 2025 | $1.19 | $1.19 | +0.0% | $1.43B |
| Mar 26, 2025 | $1.49 | $1.48 | +0.7% | $1.51B |
| Dec 19, 2024 | $1.14 | $1.13 | +0.9% | $1.32B |
Valuation in context
| Multiple | Now | 5-year median | 5-year percentile | Sector rank (cheapness) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P/E (trailing) | 19.7× | 28.1× | 0th | Top 19% |
| P/E (forward) | 16.6× | — | — | — |
| EV / EBITDA | 12.8× | — | — | Top 31% |
| EV / Sales | 5.94× | — | — | Bottom 13% |
| Free-cash-flow yield | 5.73% | — | — | Top 25% |
| Earnings yield | 5.08% | — | — | Top 19% |
P/E over the past five years
Range 20.2× – 37.8× since Aug 31, 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
- -20.2%
- Earnings per share growth (TTM)
- +13.0%
- Change in P/E multiple
- -29.1%
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
- 0
- 50-day average slope (20 days)
- +1.0%
- 200-day average slope (20 days)
- -0.2%
- Distance from 50-day average
- -15.5%
- Distance from 200-day average
- -4.7%
- RSI (14)
- 25.2
- Relative volume
- 0.63×
Risk and drawdowns
- Volatility, 60 days (annualized)
- 34.8%
- Volatility vs own 5-year history
- 100th percentile · High for this stock
- Beta vs S&P 500 (2 years, weekly)
- 0.42
- Correlation with S&P 500
- 0.25
- Current drawdown from 1-year high
- -23.1%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 years
- -46.4%
Largest declines in the past six years
| From peak | To low | Decline | Length | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 6, 2025 | Apr 10, 2026 | -46.5% | 211 days | Not yet recovered |
| Apr 6, 2022 | May 31, 2023 | -25.7% | 288 days | 345 days (Oct 14, 2024) |
| Dec 29, 2021 | Jan 27, 2022 | -18.8% | 20 days | 45 days (Apr 1, 2022) |
| Apr 2, 2025 | Apr 8, 2025 | -11.6% | 4 days | 27 days (May 16, 2025) |
| Dec 18, 2020 | Jan 22, 2021 | -10.4% | 22 days | 35 days (Mar 15, 2021) |
Declines of 10% or more from a closing high, measured on daily closes.
Financial statements
- Market cap
- $35.19B
- P/E (TTM)
- 19.7
- EPS, diluted (TTM)
- $5.03
- Revenue (TTM)
- $6.60B
- Dividend yield
- 4.59%
- 52-week range
- $85.45 – $129.24
| FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | FY 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.61B | $5.01B | $5.28B | $5.57B | $6.51B |
| Gross profit | $3.26B | $3.55B | $3.80B | $4.03B | $4.84B |
| Operating income | $1.84B | $2.03B | $2.17B | $2.21B | $2.51B |
| Net income | $1.39B | $1.56B | $1.69B | $1.66B | $1.76B |
| EPS (diluted) | $3.84 | $4.30 | $4.67 | $4.58 | $4.89 |
| Q2 2025 | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 | Q4 2026 | Q1 2027 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.32B | $1.51B | $1.43B | $1.54B | $1.56B | $1.81B | $1.61B | $1.63B |
| Net income | $413.4M | $519.3M | $297.2M | $383.8M | $395.4M | $560.3M | $420.6M | $429.7M |
| EPS (diluted) | $1.14 | $1.43 | $0.82 | $1.06 | $1.10 | $1.55 | $1.17 | $1.21 |
| FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | FY 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | $1.51B | $1.70B | $1.90B | $1.95B | $2.56B |
| Capital expenditure | -$132.6M | -$143.0M | -$161.4M | -$191.8M | -$234.9M |
| Free cash flow | $1.37B | $1.56B | $1.74B | $1.76B | $2.32B |
| Dividends paid | -$999.6M | -$1.18B | -$1.32B | -$1.45B | -$1.59B |
| Net share buybacks | -$145.2M | -$10.4M | -$169.2M | -$100.7M | -$663.0M |
Cash outflows are shown as negative numbers.
- Cash and short-term investments
- $934.2M
- Total assets
- $15.66B
- Total liabilities
- $11.96B
- Total debt
- $4.62B
- Net debt
- $4.02B
- Shareholders’ equity
- $3.71B
As of Aug 31, 2026 (filed Sep 24, 2026).
Dividends
| Ex-date | Amount | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 28, 2026 | $1.19 | Aug 28, 2026 |
| May 13, 2026 | $1.19 | May 29, 2026 |
| Jan 28, 2026 | $1.08 | Feb 27, 2026 |
| Nov 7, 2025 | $1.08 | Nov 26, 2025 |
| Jul 21, 2025 | $1.08 | Aug 29, 2025 |
| May 12, 2025 | $1.08 | May 29, 2025 |
| Feb 7, 2025 | $0.98 | Feb 27, 2025 |
| Nov 7, 2024 | $0.98 | Nov 27, 2024 |
Short interest
- Shares sold short
- 19,816,479
- Days to cover
- 8.06
- Change vs previous report
- -3.0%
FINRA short interest, settlement date Sep 15, 2026.
Stock splits
- May 23, 2000
- 3-for-2
- May 24, 1999
- 3-for-2
- May 26, 1998
- 3-for-2
- May 30, 1997
- 3-for-2
- May 24, 1996
- 3-for-2