Paychex profit, revenue rise in fiscal third quarter

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX) earned more than $144 million, or 40 cents a share, during its fiscal third quarter, which ended Feb. 28.

The firm released its third-quarter results after the markets closed Wednesday.

Profit rose 7 percent from the more than $135 million earned during the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share increased 8 percent from 37 cents a share in the year-earlier time period.

The firm generated revenue of $582 million during the quarter, up 4 percent from a year ago.

Paychex made good progress again in the third quarter, Martin Mucci, president and CEO, said in a news release.

“We saw improvement in payroll-services revenue with growth of 2 percent for the third quarter, up from 1 percent growth experienced for the first half of the fiscal year. Checks per payroll were strong for the third quarter, increasing over 2 percent compared to the prior year third quarter. Our human resource services revenue continued to grow at a double-digit rate. We completed our peak selling season and were pleased with our positive growth in new core payroll sales revenue.” Mucci said.

Headquartered in Rochester, Paychex provides payroll, human-resources, and benefit-outsourcing services for small to medium-sized businesses. The company has more than 100 offices and serves about 567,000 payroll clients nationwide.

In Central New York, Paychex services about 6,000 clients and employs more than 80 people.

Shares of Paychex, Inc. were trading up 18 cents at $34.94 per share in the 10 a.m. hour this morning.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com