Paychex (PAYX) Competitors

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) and Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, earnings, risk, profitability, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Is PAYX or ADP a better dividend stock?

Paychex pays an annual dividend of $3.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Automatic Data Processing pays an annual dividend of $6.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Paychex pays out 82.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Automatic Data Processing pays out 65.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Paychex has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Automatic Data Processing has increased its dividend for 49 consecutive years.

Does the media favor PAYX or ADP?

In the previous week, Automatic Data Processing had 27 more articles in the media than Paychex. MarketBeat recorded 53 mentions for Automatic Data Processing and 26 mentions for Paychex. Automatic Data Processing's average media sentiment score of 1.34 beat Paychex's score of 1.24 indicating that Automatic Data Processing is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Paychex	21 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Automatic Data Processing	43 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor PAYX or ADP?

Automatic Data Processing received 297 more outperform votes than Paychex when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.34% of users gave Automatic Data Processing an outperform vote while only 41.63% of users gave Paychex an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Paychex	Outperform Votes 343 41.63%	Underperform Votes 481 58.37%
Automatic Data Processing	Outperform Votes 640 58.34%	Underperform Votes 457 41.66%

Do analysts rate PAYX or ADP?

Paychex presently has a consensus price target of $132.23, suggesting a potential downside of 9.61%. Automatic Data Processing has a consensus price target of $289.91, suggesting a potential downside of 2.12%. Given Automatic Data Processing's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Automatic Data Processing is more favorable than Paychex.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Paychex	2 Sell rating(s)	11 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.85
Automatic Data Processing	2 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in PAYX or ADP?

83.5% of Paychex shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.0% of Automatic Data Processing shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.4% of Paychex shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Automatic Data Processing shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk & volatility, PAYX or ADP?

Paychex has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Automatic Data Processing has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is PAYX or ADP more profitable?

Paychex has a net margin of 32.02% compared to Automatic Data Processing's net margin of 19.72%. Automatic Data Processing's return on equity of 82.36% beat Paychex's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Paychex	32.02%	45.28%	15.61%
Automatic Data Processing	19.72%	82.36%	6.89%

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, PAYX or ADP?

Automatic Data Processing has higher revenue and earnings than Paychex. Paychex is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Automatic Data Processing, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Paychex	$5.28B	9.98	$1.69B	$4.75	30.80
Automatic Data Processing	$19.20B	6.28	$3.75B	$9.37	31.61

Summary

Automatic Data Processing beats Paychex on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.