WDAY vs PAYC Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Workday and Paycom both provide cloud-based human capital management software, but Workday targets large and mid-sized enterprises with a broad HCM and financial management platform, while Paycom focuses on small and mid-sized businesses with a single-database payroll and HR system.
WDAY offers exposure to large enterprise HR and financial software adoption with international expansion potential, while PAYC offers exposure to a more mature small and mid-sized business payroll market. The decision depends on whether you prefer enterprise-scale growth potential or a more established, smaller-customer payroll franchise.
PAYC holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. PAYC has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+26.75% vs -16.24%), though WDAY has the better forward P/E setup (15.20x vs 16.63x for PAYC). On fundamentals, WDAY is growing revenue faster (12.80%), while PAYC maintains the higher operating margin (31.72%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for WDAY (+3.10%) than for PAYC (-5.16%).
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.
- Want exposure to large enterprise human capital management and financial software adoption
- Value a platform with high switching costs once deployed within an organization
- Believe international expansion and AI-driven features will continue supporting growth
- Prefer an enterprise-focused software company over a smaller-customer payroll specialist
- Want exposure to a single-database payroll and HR platform for small and mid-sized businesses
- Value a company with an established base of recurring subscription clients
- Are comfortable with a business navigating a maturing core payroll market
- Prefer a small and mid-sized business focus over an enterprise-scale software company
| Metric | WDAY | PAYC |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 39.0 | 45.8 |
| AI ranki | #1008 | #707 |
| Latest closei | $196.63 | $252.87 |
| 1M returni | +3.13% | +11.51% |
| 3M returni | +35.21% | +68.04% |
| 6M returni | +57.47% | +101.44% |
| 1Y returni | -16.24% | +26.75% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | WDAY | PAYC |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $8.64K (-13.6%) started 2025-10-16 | $12.61K (+26.1%) started 2025-10-16 |
| 5Y ago | $7.21K (-27.9%) started 2021-10-18 | $5K (-50.0%) started 2021-10-18 |
| 10Y ago | $22.84K (+128.4%) started 2016-10-17 | $52.27K (+422.7%) started 2016-10-17 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | WDAY | PAYC |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $48.41B | $10.47B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 40.83 | 24.57 |
| Forward P/Ei | 15.20 | 16.63 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | 7.78 |
| EV/Revenuei | 4.80 | 5.17 |
| Analyst targeti | $207.10 | $220.24 |
| Target upsidei | +3.10% | -5.16% |
| Metric | WDAY | PAYC |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 12.80% | 9.80% |
| Earnings growthi | 206.00% | 48.10% |
| EPS growthi | +206.00% | +48.10% |
| FCF margini | +30.00% | +19.79% |
| Operating margini | 11.82% | 31.72% |
| Profit margini | 12.32% | 22.78% |
| ROIC proxyi | 16.01% | 41.09% |
| Return on equityi | 16.01% | 41.09% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 0.65% |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 15.87% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | No increase yet |
| Betai | 1.05 | 0.83 |
| Debt/equityi | 58.39 | 171.97 |
| Current ratioi | 0.91 | 1.07 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.81 | 0.08 |
Over the past year, WDAY and PAYC have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.61), 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 | WDAY | PAYC |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -13.61% | +26.13% |
| CAGRi | -13.63% | +26.17% | |
| Volatilityi | 53.85% | 47.66% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.09 | 0.63 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.14 | 1.03 | |
| Max drawdowni | 54.21% | 45.09% | |
| Current drawdowni | 19.96% | 0.00% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 30.65% | 24.66% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 34.60% | 28.37% | |
| Max daily dropi | 9.42% | 10.72% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 15.05% | 13.33% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -27.89% | -50.76% |
| CAGRi | -6.34% | -13.23% | |
| Volatilityi | 41.62% | 46.28% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.06 | -0.16 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.09 | -0.22 | |
| Max drawdowni | 63.38% | 79.16% | |
| Current drawdowni | 35.99% | 53.62% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 29.53% | 55.65% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 33.27% | 57.66% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.33% | 38.49% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.18% | 39.26% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +128.43% | +415.07% |
| CAGRi | +8.61% | +17.82% | |
| Volatilityi | 40.09% | 45.38% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.29 | 0.50 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.43 | 0.70 | |
| Max drawdowni | 63.38% | 79.16% | |
| Current drawdowni | 35.99% | 53.62% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 20.11% | 32.33% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 25.57% | 41.81% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.33% | 38.49% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.58% | 39.26% |
| Category | WDAY | PAYC |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Workday, Inc. | Paycom Software, Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Application | Software - Application |
| Core business | A cloud-based provider of human capital management and financial management software used primarily by large and mid-sized enterprises to manage workforce, payroll, and financial planning processes. | A cloud-based provider of human capital management and payroll software targeting small and mid-sized businesses, offering a single-database platform covering payroll, talent management, and HR functions. |
| Investor focus | Subscription revenue growth driven by large enterprise and international expansion, adoption of AI-driven workforce analytics features, and operating margin improvement. | New client bookings growth, retention trends amid a maturing core payroll market, and adoption of its automated payroll features aimed at reducing manual processing. |
- Deep, long-standing relationships with large enterprises create high switching costs once HR and financial systems are deployed
- Broad platform spanning human capital management, financial management, and analytics supports multiple avenues for expanding usage within accounts
- Continued investment in AI-driven skills and workforce planning features aims to differentiate the platform amid growing competition
- Single-database architecture avoids the integration complexity that can arise from stitching together multiple HR point solutions
- Automated, employee-driven payroll input tools aim to reduce administrative burden and errors relative to traditional payroll processing
- Established base of small and mid-sized business clients provides a durable source of recurring subscription revenue
- Enterprise-focused sales cycles are longer and more complex than smaller-customer software sales motions
- International expansion requires navigating varied regulatory and payroll compliance requirements across geographies
- Faces competition from both established enterprise software vendors and newer cloud-native HR technology entrants
- Growth has moderated as the company's core small and mid-sized business payroll market matures and new client bookings slow
- Faces competition from a wide range of payroll and HR technology providers targeting the same small and mid-sized business segment
- Sustaining premium growth rates requires continued success in expanding average revenue per client and entering new client segments
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