PAYXPaychex
Is the business good?
The checks split: 7 of 9 health tests passed and earnings fully cash-backed (1.1×), but margins compressing and returns that lean on debt.
High fundamental quality. Nine pass/fail tests of year-over-year health from the filings.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash.
Positive operating leverage, operating profit is growing faster than sales, so margins widen as the business scales.
Leverage-amplified, a high assets-to-equity ratio does much of the work. ROE 44% = margin × turnover × leverage.
Unless marked, from derived.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is PAYX?
Paychex earns 28% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 19 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 39%
Operating margin · Software - Application median 6.4% · 12 months to Q1 2027
- Cash conversion
- 1.15×
Cash conversion · 1.23× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- −1.5%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2021 | 36% |
| FY2022 | 40% |
| FY2023 | 41% |
| FY2024 | 41% |
| FY2025 | 40% |
| FY2026 | 39% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 74%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 39%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 27%
- Free cash flow margin
- 31%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $6.60B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $2.02B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $1.81B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 28%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.
Software, Application
The closest names by size in the same industry