Stock daily read

What happened with PAYC today?

Why it moved
Explains possible causes using the day’s news and filings
Moving with the market?
Uses market moves and trading volume to assess what drove the change
What to watch next
The next thing that could change the call, and what to look for

No read yet

Uses news and trading volume to explain the day’s move and how it relates to the market.

Investment outlook

PAYC in three months: buy, wait or sell?

Stop guessing. Get the call, a three-month target price, the best and worst cases, and a source for every claim.

In the report
  • Buy / Wait / Sell rating
  • 3-month target price
  • Bear · Base · Bull
  • vs. the market

Company

Company overview

Paycom Software helps employers calculate payroll and manage employee information in one online system. Its applications share a single employee database, so clients can enter information once and use it across payroll and other HR tasks. Its Beti technology lets employees manage their own payroll. Employers pay for access to the software, often buying several applications together for one price; payroll applications have historically generated most of its revenue.

Paycom sells directly through its own sales force. Clients can add applications within the same system as their needs change. Revenue depends on employers continuing to use the software, how many employees they have and which applications they buy. Its client base is diversified, with little revenue concentrated in any one client.

Paycom also collects employers’ payroll and employment-tax funds and sends them to designated accounts and tax authorities. It earns a smaller portion of revenue by investing those funds before payment, making that income sensitive to interest rates and the balances held. This service depends on banking partners to process transactions. Privacy and payment-services rules govern how Paycom handles employee data and moves money, and can restrict those activities or require additional authorization.

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Source: SEC filing

Red flags

Know what’s buried in PAYC’s filings before you buy

The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.

Sorted into
  • Happening now
  • Could go wrong
  • Built in

Moat

PAYC says it has a moat. Does it hold up?

Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.

Each edge rated
  • Strong
  • Moderate
  • Limited
  • Unproven

Related companies

  • Competition
  • Shared drivers
  • Supplier
  • Customer

Paycom’s growth depends on winning and keeping employers that buy payroll-centered HR software against these peers and omitted rivals Dayforce and Ultimate Kronos Group.

  • Paylocity Holding Corporation competes with Paycom for overlapping U.S. employers buying cloud payroll and HR subscriptions, with both charging according to employee count and the applications used. Watch Paylocity’s client headcounts and purchases of additional applications: both shape revenue from the same employer market Paycom serves.

  • Automatic Data Processing (ADP) competes with Paycom for mid-sized and larger North American employers paying for payroll and integrated HR systems. Its ADP Workforce Now product is the offering to watch for competition in that customer group, rather than treating all of ADP’s businesses as equally relevant to Paycom.

  • Paychex competes with Paycom to sell employers payroll processing and integrated HR software, but its advice and benefits services make its business mix broader. More than 60% of Paychex’s fiscal 2026 revenue came from solutions other than payroll processing, so its payroll business is a closer comparison for Paycom than its total revenue.

  • Workday competes with Paycom for medium-sized and larger employers’ cloud HR software spending, while also selling finance, spending and planning software. Watch its HR subscriptions in that employer group for the closer read on Paycom’s competitive market, rather than its broader finance-related business.

  • Asure Software, Inc competes with Paycom to provide employers with payroll, tax, HR and timekeeping software, both directly and through resellers that sell Asure’s software under their own brands. Watch that reseller channel: only about 35% of Asure’s U.S. clients buy directly, so much of its competing reach comes through those resellers.

Agenda

in 8 daysWed, Oct 28

  1. Time to be announced

    Automatic Data Processing earningsADP

    ADP’s report will show how mid-sized and larger employers are buying payroll and integrated HR systems—the market where ADP competes with Paycom.

  2. 2:00 PMET

    Fed Interest Rate Decision

    Paycom earns interest while it holds clients’ payroll and tax funds before disbursement, so the Fed’s rate decisions can change this source of revenue.

in 15 daysWed, Nov 4

  1. Time to be announced
    Major

    PAYCOM SOFTWARE, INC. earningsThis company

    Paycom charges by client headcount and applications used, so this report shows whether new clients and added services offset client losses and turn subscription revenue into profit.

in 17 daysFri, Nov 6

  1. 8:30 AMET pre-market

    Non Farm Payrolls (Oct)

    The jobs report counts employment and hiring, which can affect Paycom’s per-employee HCM fees if its clients add or lose workers.