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Paychex (PAYX) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Paychex (PAYX - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $120.15, moving -0.27% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.16%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.01%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.01%.

Coming into today, shares of the payroll processor and human-resources services provider had gained 1.83% in the past month. In that same time, the Business Services sector gained 0.7%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.83%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Paychex as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Paychex is projected to report earnings of $0.97 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 6.59%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.19 billion, up 7.05% from the prior-year quarter.

PAYX's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.21 per share and revenue of $4.97 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +11.67% and +7.66%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Paychex. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Paychex is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Paychex has a Forward P/E ratio of 28.64 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.85, so we one might conclude that Paychex is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that PAYX currently has a PEG ratio of 3.82. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Outsourcing industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.4 as of yesterday's close.

The Outsourcing industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 32, putting it in the top 13% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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