Yahoo Finance Paychex (PAYX) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know
Paychex (PAYX) closed at $67.94 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.13% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.04%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.26%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.48%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the payroll processor and human-resources services provider had lost 9% over the past month. This has lagged the Business Services sector's loss of 7% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.53% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from PAYX as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be December 20, 2018. On that day, PAYX is projected to report earnings of $0.63 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 6.78%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $858.27 million, up 3.84% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.85 per share and revenue of $3.61 billion, which would represent changes of +11.76% and +6.8%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for PAYX. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.29% higher. PAYX is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
Investors should also note PAYX's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 23.88. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.1.
Meanwhile, PAYX's PEG ratio is currently 2.81. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Outsourcing was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.68 at yesterday's closing price.
The Outsourcing industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 173, putting it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Paychex, Inc. (PAYX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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