Paychex, Inc. Reports 2.9% Rise in Profit

Shares of Paychex, Inc. PAYX are trading lower in the after-hours following the release of its Q4 earnings results. Currently, shares are lower by 0.02%, trading at $29.70; they ended the session lower by 0.87%, at $29.71. Paychex, Inc. said that Q4 EPS came in at $0.33 on revenues of $522.7 million; the Street was at $0.33 per share on revenues of $514.7 million. Revenues increased 5.3% year over year, while profits rose 2.9% year over year. Commenting on the results, Martin Mucci, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are pleased with our favorable results for fiscal 2011. Many of our key business indicators improved during the year. Most significantly, checks per client increased 2.1%, payroll services client retention improved two percentage points, and while the sales environment is still challenging, we have seen improvement in the latter half of the fiscal year in our core payroll sales.” “We increased our investment in product development, reached the highest levels of client satisfaction in our history, and acquired two software-as-a-service companies, SurePayroll and ePlan, to bolster our future growth." Paychex, Inc. is a provider of payroll, human resource, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. As of May 31, 2010, the company serviced approximately 536,000 clients. As of May 31, 2010, it serviced approximately 1,700 clients in Germany through four offices.