Paychex Q4 Profit Meets Views

reported in-line earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter on Wednesday. The Rochester, New York-based company reported a quarterly profit of $161.2 million, or $0.44 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $145.9 million, or $0.40 per share. Its total revenue climbed 8 percent year-over-year to $692.2 million. Total service revenue jumped 8 percent to $681.4 million for the quarter. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.44 per share on revenue of $690 million. The average estimate among 15 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.45 per share and revenue of $677.50 million. Payroll-service revenue rose 4 percent to $409 million in the quarter, while human-resources revenue surged 16 percent to $272.4 million. Total expenses for the quarter rose 7 percent to $440.6 million. During the fourth quarter, Paychex repurchased 2.3 million shares of common stock for a total of $112.0 million. As of May 31, 2015, the company had $936.4 million in cash and total corporate investments and no debt. Martin Mucci, President and Chief Executive Officer of Paychex, said, "We are pleased with our strong finish to fiscal 2015. Payroll service revenue experienced steady growth for the fiscal year, driven by increases in revenue per check and client base. We achieved a milestone of $1 billion of Human Resource Services revenue for fiscal 2015, as strong demand for our comprehensive human resource outsourcing solutions drove double-digit growth. Our sales execution was strong with significant growth in new annualized revenue sold. For the third year in a row, we achieved record levels of client retention." Paychex expects FY16 total service sales growth of 7 percent to 8 percent and net income growth of 8 percent to 9 percent. Paychex shares rose 0.26 percent to $47.00 in pre-market trading.