PCTY vs ADP Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Compare Paylocity's mid-market-focused HR platform against ADP's scale advantages and global payroll footprint.
Use this Paylocity vs ADP comparison to evaluate the key differences across valuation, growth, profitability, and risk before making an investment decision.
PCTY holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. PCTY leads on both 1-year return (+16.59%) and forward P/E quality (15.96x vs 20.02x for ADP), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, PCTY is growing revenue faster (11.00%), while ADP maintains the higher operating margin (23.46%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for PCTY (+11.25%) than for ADP (+7.21%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
| Metric | PCTY | ADP |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 48.7 | 52.9 |
| AI ranki | #701 | #523 |
| Latest closei | $177.19 | $304.16 |
| 1M returni | +23.41% | +15.35% |
| 3M returni | +41.45% | +21.62% |
| 6M returni | +73.39% | +54.77% |
| 1Y returni | +16.59% | +7.12% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | PCTY | ADP |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $11.66K (+16.6%) started 2025-10-23 | $10.8K (+8.0%) started 2025-10-23 |
| 5Y ago | $5.98K (-40.2%) started 2021-10-25 | $16.17K (+61.7%) started 2021-10-25 |
| 10Y ago | $38.5K (+285.0%) started 2016-10-24 | $50.66K (+406.6%) started 2016-10-24 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | PCTY | ADP |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $8.56B | $106.57B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 31.42 | 24.50 |
| Forward P/Ei | 15.96 | 20.02 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | 6.57 |
| EV/Revenuei | 4.59 | 4.91 |
| Analyst targeti | $172.00 | $287.60 |
| Target upsidei | +11.25% | +7.21% |
| Metric | PCTY | ADP |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 11.00% | 6.80% |
| Earnings growthi | 27.60% | 9.80% |
| EPS growthi | +27.60% | +9.80% |
| FCF margini | +20.32% | +23.89% |
| Operating margini | 19.06% | 23.46% |
| Profit margini | 15.23% | 20.11% |
| ROIC proxyi | 21.97% | 72.24% |
| Return on equityi | 21.97% | 72.24% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 2.54% |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 60.69% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | No increase yet |
| Betai | 0.43 | 0.83 |
| Debt/equityi | 10.89 | 91.44 |
| Current ratioi | 1.09 | 1.05 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.09 | 0.15 |
Over the past year, PCTY and ADP have moved strongly in the same direction (correlation of 0.78), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | PCTY | ADP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +16.60% | +8.03% |
| CAGRi | +16.62% | +8.04% | |
| Volatilityi | 41.80% | 28.21% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.47 | 0.26 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.69 | 0.38 | |
| Max drawdowni | 38.18% | 32.95% | |
| Current drawdowni | 0.27% | 1.23% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 15.96% | 13.85% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 20.27% | 16.60% | |
| Max daily dropi | 7.24% | 6.58% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 17.99% | 10.27% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -40.21% | +50.01% |
| CAGRi | -9.79% | +8.46% | |
| Volatilityi | 41.14% | 23.00% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.15 | 0.27 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.22 | 0.39 | |
| Max drawdowni | 68.90% | 42.23% | |
| Current drawdowni | 42.05% | 6.93% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 41.78% | 11.55% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 43.51% | 14.96% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.48% | 9.20% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 23.23% | 12.17% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +285.03% | +315.50% |
| CAGRi | +14.44% | +15.31% | |
| Volatilityi | 42.03% | 24.87% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.43 | 0.52 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.61 | 0.73 | |
| Max drawdowni | 68.90% | 42.23% | |
| Current drawdowni | 42.05% | 6.93% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 26.01% | 8.62% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 32.40% | 12.36% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.48% | 15.25% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 28.04% | 22.45% |
| Category | PCTY | ADP |
|---|---|---|
| Company | PCTY | ADP |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Application | Software - Application |
| Core business | Paylocity Holding Corporation provides cloud-based human capital management, finance, and IT software solutions in the United States. | Automatic Data Processing, Inc. provides cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions worldwide. |
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