Automatic Data Processing Q4 2025 Earnings Report

Automatic Data Processing EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $2.26
• Consensus EPS: $2.23
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.03
• One Year Ago EPS: $2.09

Automatic Data Processing Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $5.13 billion
• Expected Revenue: $5.05 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$72.30 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +6.30%

Automatic Data Processing Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 7/30/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions. Its offerings include payroll services, benefits administration, talent management, HR management, workforce management, insurance, retirement, and compliance services, as well as integrated HCM solutions. The PEO Services segment provides HR outsourcing solution to businesses through a co-employment model. This segment offers employee benefits, protection and compliance, talent engagement, expertise, comprehensive outsourcing, and recruitment process outsourcing services. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Roseland, New Jersey.

Automatic Data Processing Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q4 and FY25 results with 8% revenue growth, 40 bps adjusted EBIT margin expansion, and 8% EPS growth in Q4, and full‐year 7% revenue growth, 50 bps margin expansion, and 9% EPS growth.
• Negative Sentiment: Employer Services new business bookings of $2.1 billion grew only 3%, missing expectations due to HRO and international softness.
• Positive Sentiment: Employer Services retention improved 10 bps to 92.1%, driven by record‐high client satisfaction scores and product investments.
• Positive Sentiment: Innovation momentum continues with ADP Lyric HCM clients up 50% and millions of interactions with AI-driven ADP Assist.
• Positive Sentiment: Fiscal 2026 outlook targets 5–6% consolidated revenue growth, 50–70 bps EBIT margin expansion, and 8–10% adjusted EPS growth, backed by investments and share repurchases.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning. My name is Michelle, and I'll be your conference operator. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to ADP's Fourth Quarter Fiscal twenty twenty five Earnings Call. I would like to inform you that this conference is being recorded. After the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session.

[Operator]

Instructions will be given at that time. I will now turn the conference over to Matt Keating, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Matthew Keating, VP - IR at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you, Michelle, and welcome everyone to ADP's fourth quarter fiscal twenty twenty five earnings call. Participating today are Maria Black, our President and CEO and Peter Hadley, our CFO. Earlier this morning, we released our results for the quarter. Our earnings materials are available on the SEC's website and our Investor Relations website at investors.adp.com, where you'll also find the investor presentation that accompanies today's call. During our call, we will reference non GAAP financial measures, which we believe to be useful to investors and exclude the impact of certain items.

[Matthew Keating, VP - IR at Automatic Data Processing]

A description of these items along with a reconciliation of non GAAP measures to their most comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release. Today's call will also contain forward looking statements that refer to future events and involve some risk. We encourage you to review our filings with the SEC for additional information on factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. I'll now turn it over to Maria.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you, Matt, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. We closed out fiscal twenty five with a strong fourth quarter that included 8% revenue growth, 40 basis points of adjusted EBIT margin expansion, and 8% adjusted EPS growth. For the full year, we delivered 7% revenue growth, 50 basis points of adjusted EBIT margin expansion, and 9% adjusted EPS growth. We achieved these financial results while also making significant strides across our strategic priorities. I will briefly review some additional highlights from our results before discussing this strategic progress.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We delivered approximately 2,100,000,000 in employer services, new business bookings in fiscal twenty five, representing 3% growth. While this was below our expectations, we were able to produce another year of growth, notwithstanding the uncertainty and the macro backdrop in the '25. Taking a closer look, our small business suite and our domestic enterprise offerings saw solid bookings growth in fiscal twenty five. We did experience a softer finish in our employer services HR outsourcing business, where the uncertain macro backdrop appeared to impact client decision making. And while our international bookings improved during the fourth quarter, it was not enough to offset the softness from earlier in the fiscal year.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Importantly, our pipelines remain healthy and we are laser focused on accelerating employer services, new business bookings growth in fiscal twenty six. We were very pleased that our employer services retention exceeded our expectations once again, increasing 10 basis points to 92.1% for the year and approaching our record high of 92.2%. Our strong retention stems in part from our company wide client satisfaction scores reaching new record highs for the year. These impressive results were broad based and are a testament to the product investments we are making to improve the client experience. Employer services pays per control increased 1% in both q four and fiscal twenty five.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Our clients continue to hire, albeit at a slightly slower pace as we move through the year. Finally, our PEO new business bookings growth accelerated in the fourth quarter and for the full year contributing to fiscal twenty twenty five PEO revenue growth of 7% at the high end of our expectations. And our fiscal twenty five accomplishments extend far beyond our strong financial results. We drove meaningful momentum across all three of our strategic priorities, leading with best in class HCM technology, providing unmatched expertise and outsourcing, and benefiting our clients with our global scale. First, it's been a great year for innovation at ADP.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Since its launch, ADP Lyric HCM has continued to gain momentum in the market. Our number of clients sold increased by more than 50% in fiscal twenty five with new logos representing the majority of our new Lyric sales, and we secured these clients from a diverse set of competitors. Our number of live clients also doubled compared to the prior year, and our pipeline has continued to grow. On the AI front, we continued the rollout of ADP Assist, which provides the latest AI driven capabilities into our products, and we are seeing fantastic engagement from our clients with millions of interactions in fiscal twenty five. To further build on our unmatched expertise, we have also deployed these tools across ADP to thousands of our associates, driving efficiencies in our sales, service, and technology functions.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

By coupling our decades of experience with our significant data insights and AI investments, we are simplifying work for our associates and elevating the end to end client experience. Finally, we continue to benefit our clients with our global scale. In fiscal twenty five, we enhanced our unmatched global payroll capabilities by expanding our offer in markets with exciting growth opportunities like Japan and Saudi Arabia, and by acquiring payroll businesses like PEI in Mexico. In addition, we expanded our embedded payroll offering to enhance our small business distribution ecosystem. We also acquired workforce software in fiscal twenty five, which meaningfully enhanced our capabilities in the time and attendance space, allowing us to serve the broader workforce management needs of our clients.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Now as we look to fiscal twenty six, we are excited to make even more progress across our strategic priorities as we advance several company wide initiatives. The AI landscape is evolving fast, and we are making sure that we stay ahead. Our vast dataset is key to this. We benefit from the largest HCM dataset with over 1,100,000 clients and 42,000,000 workers paid. This data allows us to expand our offering from simple agents to autonomous agents, and our broad and granular dataset puts us in a strong position to deliver smarter and more tailored HCM agents that will be truly differentiated in the market.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

To accomplish this, we have invested in establishing our own proprietary tools to help scale our agent development in a compliant, explainable, observable, and secure manner. We have already rolled out a few role based agents, and client adoption and sentiment have been strong. We will also continue to harness AI advances to drive operational efficiency, reduce service friction, and deliver even greater value for our clients as we expand ADP Assist into our products and throughout our organization. By extending the reach of our NextGen solutions, we will build on the momentum Lyric and NextGen payroll are experiencing. Finally, our acquisition of workforce software and the maturity of Lyric are serving as catalysts for the evolution of our global offering.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We believe we have an opportunity to deliver a differentiated product and client experience that wins in the global multinational market. The success we achieved in our fiscal twenty five financial results and across our strategic priorities is a testament to the extraordinary efforts of our 67,000 dedicated associates around the world. And I wanna take a moment to thank our associates for their commitment to our clients, to each other, and to the world of work. As I look ahead, I am energized by the opportunities in front of us. We operate in a dynamic market.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

It's large. It's growing. It is always evolving, and we are ready for what's next. We have decades of HCM experience and a track record of leading in innovation. We have a leading go to market and distribution strategy and the ability to support clients of all sizes, be it a one employee small business on Main Street or the largest enterprise with more than 1,000,000 employees.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

And we have an established reputation for dependability. We understand the mission critical importance of helping our clients meet the HCM needs of their employees. At ADP, we are always designing for people. They are at the center of every decision we make. And as we move forward, we will continue to focus on people to leverage our unparalleled data insights and innovative technology and to build a world of work that is smarter, easier, and more human.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We are very excited about that future. And now I'll turn the call over to Peter.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you, Maria, and good morning, everyone. I will start by expanding on Maria's comments on our Q4 and fiscal twenty twenty five results before covering our fiscal twenty twenty six financial outlook. Our Q4 performance was strong, and this helped to drive both fiscal twenty twenty five revenue and earnings growth to the high end of our expectations. The strength was broad based, with revenue growth in both Employer Services and the PEO coming in at the top end of our full year guidance ranges. The end result was full year revenue growth of 7%, bringing fiscal twenty twenty five revenue to $20,600,000,000 For Employer Services, revenue in the quarter increased 8% on a reported basis and 6% on an organic constant currency basis.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

ES margins expanded 50 basis points in Q4, exceeding our expectations. For the full year, ES revenue grew 7% on a reported basis and six percent on an organic constant currency basis, while ES margins expanded 100 basis points. For the PEO, revenue grew 7% in the fourth quarter. During the quarter, average worksite employee growth increased 3% to $761,000 driven by strong new business bookings and stable pays per control growth. PEO margins contracted 20 basis points in the quarter, mainly as a result of higher zero margin pass through benefits revenues as well as an increase in state unemployment insurance costs.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

For full year fiscal 'twenty five, PEO revenues grew 7%, average worksite employees increased 3%, and PEO margins contracted by 60 basis points. I will now share our outlook for fiscal twenty twenty six. While the macro backdrop remains uncertain, we believe that we are well positioned to deliver solid financial results while continuing to invest for future growth and make additional, meaningful progress on our strategic priorities. Our fiscal twenty twenty six outlook assumes a continued slight moderation in the macroeconomic environment. Please note that we will no longer be providing point margin forecasts for our ES and PEO segments as we do not manage our business to drive a particular segment margin result. We will continue to share our actual margin results by segment each quarter, and we will also look to provide directional segment margin commentary as appropriate. Beginning with the ES segment, we expect revenue growth of 5% to 6%, driven by the following key assumptions: We expect ES new business bookings to grow by 4% to 7% as we expect growth to accelerate from our fiscal twenty twenty five result based on continued investments that we are making in both Salesforce headcount and tools as well as the continuing maturity of several key strategic offerings such as Lyric, workforce software and embedded payroll.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

For ES retention, we forecast a 10 to 30 basis point decline from the 92.1% result for fiscal twenty twenty five. We are encouraged by our continued retention achievements and our record client satisfaction scores. However, we think it is prudent to expect some retention pressure from a continued moderate slowing in the macroeconomic environment and the potential for some increase in small business out of business levels. As we mentioned on our prior earnings call, we see the potential for below normal US pays per control growth in fiscal twenty twenty six, and our outlook assumes 0% to 1% growth for the year. This view is consistent with the trends that we are seeing of a continued gradual moderation in US private sector payroll growth. We also expect FX to transition from a slight headwind to ES revenue growth in fiscal twenty twenty five to a modest tailwind in fiscal twenty twenty six.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

And for client funds interest revenue, the interest rate backdrop remains dynamic, and it is important to remember that our client funds interest revenue forecast reflects the current forward yield curve, which is likely to evolve as we move through fiscal twenty twenty six. At this moment, we expect that our average yield will increase from 3.2% in fiscal 'twenty five to 3.4% in fiscal twenty twenty six, which contemplates the market's expectations for short term interest rates to decrease by around 100 basis points during the fiscal year. We also expect that our average client funds balances will grow 2% to 3% in fiscal twenty twenty six. Putting all this together, we expect that our client funds interest revenue will increase from $1,190,000,000 in fiscal twenty twenty five to a range of $1,290,000,000 to $1,310,000,000 in fiscal twenty twenty six. Meanwhile, we expect that the net impact from our client fund strategy will increase from $1,070,000,000 in fiscal twenty twenty five to a range of 1,250,000,000.00 to $1,270,000,000 in fiscal twenty twenty six.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

We expect ES margins to expand in fiscal twenty twenty six, driven by the continued growth of client funds interest revenues, partially offset by the growth investments we are making in support of our strategic priorities. Moving on now to the PEO segment. We expect PEO revenues to grow 5% to 7% and PEO revenues, excluding zero margin pass throughs, to grow 3% to 5% in fiscal twenty twenty six. Our growth outlook also assumes average worksite employee growth of 2% to 3%. We are anticipating continued healthy PEO new business bookings growth and higher retention to be partially offset by a modest decline in PEO pays per control growth.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

We expect PEO margins to decrease in fiscal twenty twenty six, with zero margin pass throughs growing faster than overall PEO revenues. Adding it all up, our consolidated revenue outlook is for 5% to 6% growth in fiscal twenty twenty six, and we expect adjusted EBIT margin expansion of 50 to 70 basis points. We expect that our effective tax rate will be around 23%, and we expect fiscal twenty twenty six adjusted earnings per share growth of 8% to 10%, supported by continued share repurchases. A quick note on our margin cadence. Due to the impact of the Workforce Software acquisition and the timing of some other investments, we are expecting some contraction in our adjusted EBIT margin on a year over year basis in the first quarter before margins ramp over the remainder of fiscal twenty twenty six.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you, and I'll now turn it back to the operator for Q and A.

[Operator]

Thank you. You. And our first question comes from Brian Bergen with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

[Bryan Bergin, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Hi, guys. Good morning. Thank you. I want to start with demand here and maybe just dig into the areas of the ES signings under performance versus the plan. It sounded like HRO and international.

[Bryan Bergin, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Can you share more thoughts on the HRO softness just despite the efficiency proposition there? I'm curious on that. And is that mid market softness specifically?

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, good morning, Brian. Thank you. Happy to help kind of unpack the $2,100,000,000 in bookings that we had, excuse me, on the 3% growth and the attribution. As mentioned, we had relative growth in the small business suite. That's inclusive, by the way, of our insurance offering, our retirement services offering.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We saw strength in the domestic enterprise suite. When you think about that, that's the strength we've seen in Lyric, that's workforce software, that's the strength that we see in our compliance solutions offerings, employment tax, things of that nature. The softness that we spoke to was in international, but specifically to your question, since you were asking about HRO, just kind of double click on that. The domestic HRO business is a combination of the upper end of the mid market, if you will, as well as call it the lower end of the enterprise space. Product wise, those are two offerings named comprehensive services and comprehensive outsourcing solutions.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

And those are oftentimes very, very large opportunities for us. They're complex. They have long sales cycles. They often involve lots of departments, lots of decision makers. Think HR transformations, if you will.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

And we did see some strength in that area in the first half of last year. We saw it moderate in the third quarter, but we had a significant pipeline heading into the fourth quarter, but we just didn't see the decisions being made in the fourth quarter. Now the good news is, because you asked about activities and how that pipeline is faring, these are still active deals, so these aren't deals that said no and said a different answer such as a competitor. These are just delayed decisions that didn't happen in the fourth quarter. So, the pipeline remains strong.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

It is up year on year and ultimately, the activity and the healthiness of that pipeline remains as we head into fiscal twenty six.

[Bryan Bergin, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay. Okay. That's helpful. And then I guess just a follow-up on broader bookings. Just can we double click on the confidence in reaccelerating off that 3%?

[Bryan Bergin, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

I heard product maturity is part of it. Are there also some specific kind of go to market or pricing initiatives that you're implementing? And can you just comment on how July performed? Just curious if it was any better than the June exit.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, fair enough. Product maturity is absolutely a part of it. We're really pleased and optimistic and confident in the decisions that we've made as it relates to the investments we've made into product, that's organic builds, that's all the NextGen offerings that you would have seen at Investor Day. In addition to that, it's things like the acquisition. So we feel confident in the NextGen offerings as they gain momentum combined with things like the Workforce Software acquisition heading into '26.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

So that's definitely a piece of our confidence as it relates to the booking guides heading into the year. In addition to that, as you know, Brian, we've made tremendous investments into our sellers. That's everything from headcount to the ecosystem around them. That's banks, CPAs. That's broadening the distribution ecosystem with partnerships, as an example, and embedded payroll.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

So those investments, we also feel very confident heading into the year. In addition to that, we also make a lot of investments into our seller technology and the modern stack that our sellers use to be efficient and gain productivity each and every year. We've been on that journey for quite some time. We showcase a lot of that specifically at Investor Day, things like the Zone, which is our proprietary, if you will, portal for our sellers to engage with things like generative AI to serve up the right lead at the right time to the right sellers. So I think the combination of all of our investments coupled with, by the way, incredible service, sitting at record NPS results.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

I think all of that makes for a solid seller environment heading into the year. I think in terms of pricing, there's always pricing activity that happens. I wouldn't say that there's anything different happening across the ecosystems. We run promos, the others run promos. That's kind of on par.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

I think pricing and the demand holds there. And then I think you asked me one more thing. Just July. July. Yes. July. It is July 30.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

I think it's too early to comment on July. I think the biggest comment I would say is the one I said earlier, which is that pipelines and activity remains strong. It's healthy. It's engaged. It's up year on year.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

And that gives us confidence heading into the quarter as well as the year.

[Bryan Bergin, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay. Thank you for all the detail.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ramsey El Assal with Barclays. Your line is open.

[Ramsey El-Assal, Managing Director at Barclays]

Hi, thank you for taking my question. I wanted to ask about the pricing contribution in fiscal twenty twenty six, whether it's more analogous to what we've seen maybe historically or whether it remains a little bit elevated just given inflation is also a little bit elevated?

[Ramsey El-Assal, Managing Director at Barclays]

And I had a second question, I'll just throw it in here. It was just on the better than anticipated retention result this quarter, whether there was any particular call outs or drivers or reasons why you saw the outperformance? Thank you.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah. Thanks, Ramzi. Good morning. Thank you for the question. Just with respect to pricing, if you're talking about the historical norms, sort of the 50 basis points we used to talk about, I guess, sort of pre pandemic and the post pandemic inflation period.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Our pricing assumptions for 'twenty six are more consistent with the near term, so in that 100 or so basis point range, that's our expectation. We have a slight moderation factored into our planning for '26 versus '25, but we're more in the camp, if you like, of recent pricing trends versus sort of the pre pandemic, pre inflationary environment increase in terms of our pricing. And in terms of the retention performance, we were really pleased with retention and the way that came in in the fourth quarter. There's no real specific callouts. We were certainly pleased on the small business side that we did not see some of the potential small business out of business lift that we had been sort of cautioning, I guess, our guide around.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

But really, the performance was very much broad based across the company and we saw some great retention results across all of the segments as well as in our international space.

[Ramsey El-Assal, Managing Director at Barclays]

Got it. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Marcon with Robert W. Baird. Your line is open.

[Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co]

Hey, good morning and thanks for taking my questions. With regards to, you know, to workforce software getting integrated more fully, what are you seeing in terms of just the early results workforce software? I know they're still selling independently and to what extent do you think you'll end up getting a lift on the upper enterprise side once it's fully integrated with Lyric?

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Sure. Good morning, Mark. We are incredibly excited about workforce software and the journey that we've been on with respect to integration. We did see workforce software contribute to bookings. We did see the contribution of the overall environment as it related to going through the pipelines on both sides and the overlap and seeing how the narrative started to evolve for us internationally, specific in these large, complex, multinational opportunities.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

And I will tell you that the receptivity amongst both the client base as well as our independent opportunities as well as the shared ones has been above our expectations. And so we remain incredibly bullish on the acquisition we made as we continue that journey of integration. We do expect that it will contribute significantly to our growth narrative, specifically in our MNC international space this year as well as the coming years.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, and just to add on to that, I would say, Mark, you're correct. The team is continuing to sell workforce software on a standalone basis, and that was always part of the plan, we expect that will continue. In terms of selling with ADP products like Lyric, like GlobalView, for example, that's already happening. That's not a future event. Obviously, we hope it continues in the future, but but it's not something that has not yet arrived yet.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

We've already seen traction in FY 'twenty five with respect to sort of, call it, co selling with ADP products. So we're already well and truly off to the races, I think, with respect to workforce software being part of the integrated suite from a selling perspective.

[Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co]

Great. And then I demoed Workforce Now NextGen at SHRM, And I thought it was pretty impressive. And I'm wondering to what extent are you selling the NextGen product now relative to the old Workforce Now? And what sort of lift would you expect to see there from some of those improvements?

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, first and foremost, thank you. I'm glad you were at Charm. I'm glad you had the opportunity to take a look at the Workforce Now NextGen as we showcase it there for the exact design, which is continuing to expand the reach of that offer. So I think we've been loosely talking about it being deployed across the core market throughout fiscal 'twenty five. We continue to expand beyond the core market, and that is the plan for 'twenty six.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

And that was the purpose, if you will, of somewhat of an unveil at the SHRM conference. So that's the intent. It is part of the confidence that we have in the 4% to 7% bookings acceleration, if you will, as you think about heading into the year and being able to deploy the NextGen workforce now to a broader set of the mid market clients. We're really excited to see that product mature. We're seeing great wins.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We're seeing great takeaways. We are definitely seeing it make an impact in the market and happy to hear that it shows well.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah. And also just from a downstream perspective, the client satisfaction scores with respect to next gen payroll with Workforce Now are really, really robust and continuing to improve. And I was talking to our operations leader the other day, the implementation experience is getting better and better, and also, you know, from a client user perspective, the number of contacts that clients on next gen have to make to ADP in order to solve their needs significantly reduced versus sort of the current gen model. You know, in terms of what it will bring us in terms of bookings, as Maria outlined, but downstream, we're also really excited about the potential impacts of expanding that offering more widely across the client base.

[Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co]

Perfect. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Samad Samana with Jefferies. Your line is open.

[Samad Samana, Managing Director at Jefferies Financial Group]

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Maybe first, I just was curious, if you think about where the quarter struck out, how does that maybe compare to what you were thinking at the time of the Analyst Day? And did it surprise you relative to what you were expecting at that time? And then I have a follow-up question as well.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Smad, thanks for the question. Are you referring to bookings or just more generally? Think we were very happy with how the quarter Yes.

[Samad Samana, Managing Director at Jefferies Financial Group]

You about bookings, right, just in terms of like how you were thinking about bookings at the time and maybe I guess trying to figure out if there is a trend line change. And I know that, again, pipeline sounds very good, but I'm just kind of curious, basically, if there's some change that happened in the last couple of weeks of the quarter, just as I know you guys aren't really commenting on July, but just as we think about the trend line from there, just what did you experience over that kind of couple of week period?

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah. So I would say in Investor terms Day, we were very much focused on the medium term. So what are we going to do over the three- to four year period? It wasn't driven by particular quarters or even in particularly individual fiscal years. What I would say with respect to bookings, and I think it's been said on this call before, our fourth quarter is our largest quarter of the year for bookings.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Within the fourth quarter, the June month is the largest month of the quarter, and literally within the month of June, the last week or two is the biggest period of the year. So to be candid with you, we weren't necessarily thinking of what the result would or wouldn't be with respect to the numbers we framed for our medium term guides. Certainly, we were anticipating a little stronger finish than what we ended up with. I think Maria has outlined the reasons for that, But I wouldn't really draw a trend line or certainly a linkage between the medium term guide that we put forward and this quarter, and certainly I would not take from this quarter result, extrapolate any trend in terms of where we think our medium term objective is. We're still very much committed to the numbers that we spoke to at Investor Day.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Obviously, a fiscal year, we have to give guidance. The macro backdrop still remains uncertain. Think there's potentially a little bit more volatility, either positive or negative, that could happen during the year versus what we're anticipating to be the case over the longer period. So that's how I would think about it. But no real discernible linkage, I would say, between how we finished FY 'twenty five and sort of the medium term objectives that we shared six or eight weeks ago.

[Samad Samana, Managing Director at Jefferies Financial Group]

Great. And then, Maria, you know, Lyric has done really, really well over the last year, so you guys have increasingly talked about it. I'm just curious. The the product itself, I think, has been a big part of that. How help us think about distribution, and how much better is the sales organization at selling?

[Samad Samana, Managing Director at Jefferies Financial Group]

And then how are you thinking about indirect distribution there? And maybe, you know, I guess, sorry to make it a multipart question, but just gonna be a bigger component of bookings in fiscal twenty six.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah. It's a great question. And you are absolutely correct. We are incredibly excited about Lyric. Its strong reception in the market, the contribution to bookings, by the way, in '24, also the contribution of bookings in '25.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

As I cited, Lyric did enjoy robust sales growth, if you will, in 'twenty five. And we certainly anticipate that only to grow into 'twenty six and beyond. In terms of the direct distribution, today it is kind of in that enterprise space, in the domestic space. We are expanding that into the global footprint as we think about the offer of Lyric in the MNC space going forward. That is through our sellers and our seller ecosystem.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

But even in our upper end of the market, I know we talk a lot about channels in the down market, we talk about CPAs and banks in the mid market, talk about brokers. But even in the upper end of the market, we do already distribute and partner with whether it's big, large organizations that are driving other types of transformations. We have partnerships with some of the big ERP players. In addition to that, we have partnerships with a lot of the system integrators. Is there an opportunity as we continue to build and scale the offering to continue to evolve our distribution mechanism?

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

I think the answer to that is absolutely. Too early, I think, at this juncture to say what the impact of that would be in 'twenty six, but certainly our goal is to continue to evolve the distribution and uptake of Lyric and it is definitely resonating. Will tell you, we've been ourselves just somewhat blown away by the receptivity in the market. It is the most modern HCM tech platform that's out there. It's flexible, it's adaptable.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

I think you had an opportunity, many of you, to see it at Investor Day, and it's definitely something that is being talked about and we're happy to see the wins. We see them against some of the most formidable competition and we see, again, just the receptivity in the market exceeding our expectations. Excited to continue to lean into it.

[Samad Samana, Managing Director at Jefferies Financial Group]

Thank you as always for taking my questions. Have a great day.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

You too.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Tien Tsin Huang with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

[Tien-tsin Huang, Senior Analyst at JP Morgan]

Hey, thanks. Good morning. Just building on that last answer, just the confidence in overall bookings accelerating in fiscal 'twenty six, just how much is driven by headcount investments that you put into place versus higher sell through attached new products that kind of thing versus '25?

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, fair enough Tien Tsin. First and foremost, would say our sales from new opportunities versus the beyond payroll, if you will, remains at fiftyfifty. That is our plan. That's kind of held steady as long as I can remember. So I would say that is our expectation for next year, so we're not over rotating away from kind of that.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

In addition, we're not over rotating on sales headcount. I think several years ago, on the heels of the great resignation, we leaned into headcount quite a bit and we needed to because we had, just like every other company, seen an uptick in attrition. But as attrition has abated, the big strength in the seller productivity is really the lift we're getting from tenure. But we are still making headcount investments. They will look largely in line with what we did in 'twenty five and what we did in 'twenty four, which is kind of that mid single digit, if you will.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

So it's an investment in headcount. It's an investment in everything I talked about earlier around the sellers in terms of their ecosystem. And then it's also this bit of a natural uplift that we get from increasing the tenure of all of our sellers, fantastic.

[Tien-tsin Huang, Senior Analyst at JP Morgan]

Terrific. Then quickly on retention, still very high, impressive. I know it's reasonable to assume some decline from that high this year, but is the 10 to 30 assuming more on the voluntary versus involuntary attrition? I'm just trying to understand if there's anything more specific that you're paying attention to as you go into this new fiscal year.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, I mean, I'd say nothing particularly specific, Tien Tsin. I think it's probably a little more on the involuntary, but again, the macro environment, we have to see how it plays out. We were positively surprised, so to speak, I guess, in 'twenty five and 'twenty four. We're hoping that will be the case also in 'twenty six, but we feel sort of the prudent responsible position at the moment just given the trends we do observe. And most of those trends that we're observing, obviously we listen to what the economists and what the external sources are saying, but we see a lot and draw a lot of our conclusions from our own data.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Now again, our data on retention is strong, but there are signs that we feel we should be prudent. But I would certainly not point you know, upticks in voluntary client attrition. Again, all the indicators on that, be it client satisfaction and just the trends we've been observing are very favorable. So I would point that more to being a macro assumption that we hope does not materialize.

[Tien-tsin Huang, Senior Analyst at JP Morgan]

Perfect. Makes great sense. Thanks, Peter. Thanks, Maria.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research. Your line is open.

[Kartik Mehta, Executive Managing Director & Director - Research at Northcoast Research Partners LLC]

Morning. Maria, just your thoughts on bookings. You know, right now they're in a delay. At what point does delay become cancellation? Or what signs have you seen give you any concern at all?

[Kartik Mehta, Executive Managing Director & Director - Research at Northcoast Research Partners LLC]

It seems like you don't have any concern, it seems like things progress and delays can become cancellations.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Sure, certainly we're looking at all of that. Maybe a way for me to answer the question, Kartik, is to just kind of unpack how we think about pipelines and activity in general. So if you think about the various segments, and I'll start at the small end, in the small business it's really not about pipelines. Many of those opportunities we're able to literally onboard in hours, if you will. And so we're looking more activity measures.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

And that's everything from leads coming in, call it how many appointments sellers are on, opportunities that are being generated. And so we're looking at the activities, specifically I would say across the small business portfolio, across even the core end of the mid market. It's a very active, healthy activity that's happening out there. And we don't see any moderation in kind of the activity out there. So in the PEO space specifically, we're looking at things like RFPs, requests for proposals that is.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We're looking at asks for benefit underwriting, lots of different measures that we look at to, again, assess whether or not the activity levels have changed. The answer there is they continue to remain healthy. The upper end of the mid market heading into the enterprise space and international, that's really where we're looking at pipeline. Oftentimes, sales cycles are months, sometimes if not years. And so you can really see the pipeline activity.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

There is some pipeline aging that's happening. That's not necessarily new news. I think we've talked about on previous calls that we're back to the new normal or the old normal pre pandemic, where you have a lot of decision makers and the deals are moving through the motions more in line with how they used to move through the motions. And that's definitely what we see. We do see the pipeline has aged a bit, but it's still active.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

The opportunities are healthy and when I say active, there's still dialogue back and forth. Year on year it is up. So what I would say is all across, whether it's new appointments that are being done out in the field, in the down market, RFPs that are being requested in the PEO, or in the enterprise space and international space, the pipelines are continuing to grow and new opportunities are entering and the ones that are in there are healthy. All signs point to a broad based healthy pipeline and activity backdrop for us heading into the year.

[Kartik Mehta, Executive Managing Director & Director - Research at Northcoast Research Partners LLC]

And then just Peter, on the PPC, the difference between ES and PO, if you're seeing any difference or if it's still kind of holding steady, both about the same?

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, they're both holding relatively steady. Again, we've seen this sort of gradual moderation through FY 'twenty five and also over the last couple of years. What I would say is the two numbers are quite similar, I would say. What we have seen in recent couple of quarters I think it is the PEO has actually gone a little above, if you like, the ES segment, which has been traditionally where PEO is at. We've traditionally had higher PPC in the PEO than what we have had in ES.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

As you'll remember, that flipped for a number of quarters, not in a meaningful way, but it had flipped. It was something we noticed because it's not typically the case. So I would say that dynamic between the two has returned to normal. There is a little bit higher PPC growth in the PEO we're experiencing than what we're seeing in ES, but the numbers are really quite similar and the trends are also pretty similar. So I would say, you know, in terms of our guide next year on ES, PO is not too far away from that. Let's put it like that.

[Kartik Mehta, Executive Managing Director & Director - Research at Northcoast Research Partners LLC]

Perfect. Thank you both very much. I appreciate it.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you, Kathy.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Scott Wortzel with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

[Scott Wurtzel, SVP - Equity Research at Wolfe Research, LLC]

Hey, good morning guys. Thank you for taking my questions. Just wanted to ask on the PEO guidance and sort of the widening gap between reported revenue growth and revenue growth ex pass throughs. I'm just wondering if you can talk about what's driving those higher expected contribution from zero margin pass through revenue for fiscal 'twenty six versus 'twenty five? Thanks.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yes, Scott. So probably two things. In terms of the zero margin pass throughs, we're expecting those to continue strongly. Medical health insurance inflation really, the cost of health insurance is sort of driving the benefits pass through revenue obviously. In terms of the non zero margin pass through, what we're assuming in our outlook is and we saw a little bit of this in the fourth quarter we'll see whether that actually materializes there is some moderation in wage growth.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

So we've had experience in both the PEO and as well also in client fund balances through 'twenty five. We've experienced really strong and benefited from strong wage growth levels. Like I said, saw that come off a little bit in the fourth quarter and again really based on a macro assumption primarily. We're assuming some that that will continue but not at the same rate that it was in 'twenty five, so that has a little bit of a dampening effect on the non pass through revenues. The other piece on the PEO that we also saw now this is low margin revenue, but in 'twenty five we saw elevated state unemployment insurance rates that came out in the January period.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

We're not expecting the same thing again. So again, that doesn't have much of an effect on our margin, but from a revenue perspective, we're expecting that to be a little lower '26 than what we saw in '25.

[Scott Wurtzel, SVP - Equity Research at Wolfe Research, LLC]

Got it. That's helpful. And then just as a follow-up on the embedded payroll side and particularly around the Clover partnership. Just wondering if you can kind of update us where you are sort of on the integration and getting that into market as well as sort of what you're expecting from the Clover partnership and other embedded payroll offerings for fiscal 'twenty six in terms of contribution to bookings? Thanks.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We are very pleased with things and how they are progressing with specifically the Fiserv partnership or Clover, as you mentioned. I would tell you we are partnered across every aspect of our business and each of our groups. So our respective sales, product, executive teams, we've been working incredibly hard together and also incredibly well together. As you are aware, back in May was when we put the run offer inside of Clover, but it's only deployed to a subset of Fiserv's or Clover's, what they call their back book or their client base. And so we're really excited as we head into this quarter, and specifically 'twenty six, to have a further broader deployment across the back book there.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

In addition to that, we are also working this year to put the cash flow central inside of the run offer, which also will put the small business ecosystem together for our mutual clients. So what I would tell you is we do expect bookings contribution based on this relationship. I think it's all really in front of us still. So I think this is a big year for us as we head into this opportunity. But that said, they're also from a 2,100,000,000 in bookings, it is in that down market and it will contribute significantly to the down market ecosystem.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

But in terms of a discernible uptick based on this relationship, I think that's probably too early to see that at this juncture. But really excited about the partnership, really excited about how it's progressing, and the opportunity is largely in front of us.

[Scott Wurtzel, SVP - Equity Research at Wolfe Research, LLC]

Great, thanks guys.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from James Faucette with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

[James Faucette, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley]

Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate all the details here. I wanted to ask, Maria, you just emphasized your range of partnerships, etcetera, and I think it creates a lot of opportunity. Just wondering how that's impacting your kind of sales channel management and forecasting.

[James Faucette, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley]

Just Are you seeing improvements? Does it become more reliable, or does it become more difficult? Just trying to think through how expanded use of partnerships can impact your visibility.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you for the question, James. I think you know I'm very bullish on partnerships as a way to accelerate, whether it's candidly all three of our strategic priorities, which is to have the best technology, the most robust offering, and the biggest, largest global scale. So I think we have partnerships that fit squarely into each one of our segments to advance the strategic priorities. All of this is, in my mind, what it means to be a modern company to ensure that you're really good at what you're good at and leveraging others to extend your reach, whether it's through distribution or it's just to solve client opportunities. And that's exactly what we do and that's exactly what we've been doing.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

What I will tell you is we are also very thoughtful about how we partner. And so when I say we partnered as an example on the embedded payroll at all of the levels of the organization, whether it's the executive levels or it's the seller level, a lot of this is about perfecting the model so that we do not change, call it fundamentally visibility into our business or at some level how we actually go to market. So what I would tell you is we have not seen an inability for us to have a view on results or pipelines or activity levels by virtue of our partnership. I think if anything, it's extending and expanding our visibility, because we have more eyes and set opportunities. So if you imagine in the upper end of the enterprise or MMC space, as we're partnering with SIs, have more visibility into all of the things a client is trying to actually accomplish, which at times is all about HCM, but sometimes an HCM transformation might just be a subset of a larger project.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

I think in the down market, CPAs and banks, they have full visibility to those clients. And certainly, partnerships and how we're structuring them as we expand the reach of our ecosystem, such as embedded payroll, we're very thoughtful to make sure that we're not disintermediating anything that is the way that we do business as ADP.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, I can confirm that. There's no adverse effect on our ability to forecast really the partners really enhance our opportunity and help us to deliver. In no way does that sort of impede or make it more difficult or more easy, for that matter, to get our forecasting on point.

[James Faucette, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley]

Great. That's really useful color and insight into how that's developing. I wanted to touch on one of those partnerships, and that's Wisely and Earned Wage Access. I don't think we've gotten much of an update on that product in quite some time. How is that attach trending?

[James Faucette, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley]

And I think more specifically, you introduced a fee free Earned Wage Access program with DailyPay a few years ago. And I know it's a small product in totality, but just curious to hear how EWA attached to it among RUN clients has evolved over the last twelve, eighteen months.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, what I would say is, you're right, it is a small part. We are pleased with the Wisely member count that we have. Don't know that we're in a position to provide any more specifics around that offer than I think what we've talked about. It is attaching, I guess, specific use cases for certain clients. And some of those are on the smaller side at the member count standpoint, I.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

E. An employee actually making choices for some of these things and some of it is at the aggregate in certain types of industries. It seems to be a significant interest in this way. I think actually we produced in our ADP Research Institute a Today at Work report that came out just this past few weeks. And in that report, it talks about the frequency by which everything from generations to segmented clients, I.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

E. By size, want to get paid. And so it is kind of interesting to track these trends, and I encourage you to take a look at it, James, in terms of what type of employee it is that wants to be paid, whether it's biweekly, which by the way, is the bulk of The United States as an example is paid biweekly or twice a month. But in terms of this daily element or this ability to get pay, call it on demand or early wage access, you can kind of see some of those trend lines in there. And so I think, again, for the clients that have workers that categorically fall in there, this offer is a fantastic solution.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We're very pleased with what we have, and I think that's probably the best color I can give you.

[James Faucette, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley]

Great. Appreciate that, Maria. Have a good day.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

You too.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ashish Sabadra with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

[David Paige, AVP - Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets]

Hi, good morning. This is David Page on for Ashish. Thanks for taking our questions. Maria, Peter, I was wondering if you could just detail what the AI contribution is to margins, either on the upside or investing that still needs to go on to get the AI product through and up and running? Any color there would be helpful. Thank you.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, sure, David. So we are and we've sort of said this relatively consistently, I think, the last few quarters also at Investor Day. So the situation has not changed. We are seeing meaningful productivity improvements and opportunities. We have businesses, for example, in our down market and also our mid market.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

You'll see next week when we release our 10 ks. Our client unit counts continue to grow at a very healthy and consistent clip what they had been growing in previous years, yet we are able to actually see some operational headcount reduction in those businesses as a result of generative AI and some of the other you know, like minded tools and things that we're deploying in those spaces. So it is real. We're not quantifying the amount of that, but it is certainly real that we are enjoying those benefits. But again, as we've said in the past, we are deploying AI a very thoughtful, governed way.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

So we are reaping benefits from where we have deployed, but we're also investing in further deployment of additional types of tools and additional other parts of the company. So we still remain in a net investment position. It's not a big meaningful number. Think of it in the tens of millions of dollars, not hundreds of millions of dollars between the investment that we're making in deploying and bringing new generative AI capabilities to the organization versus, call it, the productivity opportunities, for want of a better word, that they're already reaping from deployments that have been made over the last couple of years. So likely that will continue certainly through this fiscal year in that investment position, overall we're very happy with the traction that we have seen from the deployments we've made and we continue to be very focused and committed to continuing to deploy generative AI both for efficiency and productivity reasons, but also for client user experience in our platforms, in our technology organizations and various places across the enterprise, either on the front end or on the back end.

[David Paige, AVP - Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets]

Thanks, Peter. That's very helpful. And just a quick follow-up. I'm assuming the answer is no, but any pushback in the international markets from working with an American company or the evolving tariff situation that's playing out there? Any puts and takes to share? Thank you.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, your assumption is correct. The answer is no. What I would tell you in terms of our global clients, many of them are in that mid market and up market. Many of these clients have been with us for years and new opportunities take several years. As you know, while we're a US based company, we serve our clients very much on the ground across many of these 140 countries.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

And so I think we have this mix of a global company, but also incredibly local in terms of how we execute. So no, we have not seen any pushback with respect to decisions as a result of that.

[David Paige, AVP - Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Dan Dolev with Mizuho Group. Your line is open.

[Dan Dolev, Senior Analyst - FinTech Equity Research at Mizuho Financial Group]

Hey, guys. Congrats on a great quarter. I have two quick questions. So going back to mid market software bookings, can you maybe elaborate a little bit how it did this year versus your initial expectations? And then I have a quick follow-up.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah. So in terms of mid market software, as you know, the mid market software that we have, Workforce Now, is deployed across the mid market opportunities, call it tech only. It's also deployed across our PEO. We haven't talked about PEO bookings yet, so I'll do a quick plug because that team was very busy all of '25 and laser focused on re accelerating bookings, that's exactly what we did inclusive of Q4. So it's my shout out to the all hands on deck execution there.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

But that workforce now also serves the mid market there. The mid market is also inclusive of our employer services, the comprehensive services, HRO offer there. And so, a mid market standpoint, maybe the easiest way to think about how that product is faring is you'll see it when we look at Peter just mentioned it, but when you look at the 10 ks and you look at the client count there, you will see kind of an in line healthy contribution as it relates to the client count growth, specifically on Workforce Now. And so I think that's probably the best bellwether to take a look at the mid market.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, I mean, to add. So again, Maria has just mentioned we had strong PEO bookings. We're very pleased with that. She mentioned earlier in her prepared remarks we had a strong first half but a softer finish on the ESHRO. I would say the tech offer, for want of a better description, HCM sort of service offering we call it for our mid market was sat more or less somewhere between the two, relatively evenly between the two.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

So we were satisfied with how that performed in fiscal 'twenty five. And certainly, as we were talking earlier to one of the earlier questions, we see a lot of positivity in front of us, particularly as we're able to expand the reach of the next gen payroll capabilities with Workforce Now in the mid market going into 'twenty six.

[Dan Dolev, Senior Analyst - FinTech Equity Research at Mizuho Financial Group]

Got it. And then just as a quick follow-up, you've had a big merger. Your competitor acquired took a page out of your book and acquired Paycor. Can you maybe talk a little bit about the competitive landscape that you're seeing right now following that merger? Thank you.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, so following the merger, what I would offer is I don't think a whole lot has changed. I think we've talked about in the past, we compete very well against both of those competitors on a, call it, standalone basis. I would say in a combined set, we haven't seen anything change in the competitive landscape. As I always say, it's always been a very competitive environment, specifically kind of in that mid market, And we fare incredibly well. We see that in our retention rates, we see that in our service offering, we see that in client count growth.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

We're really confident in the evolution and maturing of our Workforce Now NextGen that serves that space. So, I think we have a good story in that space, and we haven't seen anything change specifically on the heels of that acquisition or merger, if you will.

[Dan Dolev, Senior Analyst - FinTech Equity Research at Mizuho Financial Group]

Great. Thank you. Great results again.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you very much. Thank

[Operator]

you. And we have time for one last question. And that question comes from Daniel Jester with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

[Daniel Jester, US Software Equity Research Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Great. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to follow-up with Peter on a question earlier on the margin front. Appreciate kind of AI still in the net investment position.

[Daniel Jester, US Software Equity Research Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

As you think about maybe some of the other puts and takes on margin, it looks like maybe you're maybe lapping some of the investments and integration of Workforce Software in the forward year. You have a little bit of FX volatility. So any sort of other things you'd call out with regards to the margin guidance that we should be considering? And just with regards to the seasonality, you talked about how margin is going to ramp throughout the year. Maybe what are the drivers of that?

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Yeah, sure, Dan. So in terms of the lapping of the Workforce software acquisition, I would say our investing in the product and the integration of that product with Lyric, with Workforce Now, with our global payroll offerings will continue right through the fiscal year, and I'm not giving any comments beyond that, but I would probably point you to beyond that. There's a huge opportunity we think there, and that's something that we're committed to and we intend to see right through to delivering best in class integrated offerings across that upper mid market enterprise and global space. What we're lapping is the amortization and the interest expense and so on that we took out with the bond that we used to pay for that. As you know, that's in the October period.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

In terms of other drivers, we have a bit of a tailwind from a revenue perspective with FX. That's actually a bit of a margin contraction item because the margin that that FX comes on at is lower than the line average certainly of employer services and also of the company as a whole, so that's a little bit more of a negative factor, if you like, from a margin percentage perspective, but it delivers us some more revenue and some more EPS. So really, the margin story I think is we and I called it out in my prepared remarks we have strong balances client fund balances that are delivering through our laddering strategy, increasing client fund interest. We have productivity improvements like I was talking about in terms of some of the initiatives and AI initiatives we've put through parts of the company. But we continue to invest meaningfully not just in workforce software but also in our other key strategic offerings like Lyric.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

Maria said we had a great sales year. Were very happy with that. Now we have a lot of backlog and we have operational resources that we're onboarding in order to get that backlog implemented and get those clients to revenue generating. So we're investing in Lyric. We're investing in workforce software, as I said before, generative AI.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

We're also cognizant, as we said at Investor Day, to balance that with margin expansion and also healthy returns for our shareholders. So that's really the margin mix unpicked.

[Daniel Jester, US Software Equity Research Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Great. Thank you very much.

[Peter Hadley, CFO at Automatic Data Processing]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer portion for today. I'm pleased to hand the program over to Maria Black for closing remarks.

[Maria Black, President & CEO at Automatic Data Processing]

Thank you, Michelle, and thank you again, everyone, for joining this morning and for your interest. I had the opportunity earlier to thank our associates. I'd like to do that once again and also to all of our stakeholders out there that support us and our journey. We had a solid twenty twenty five and it couldn't be done without our associates, our clients, our analysts, our investors. I'm incredibly grateful for the support and I'm also incredibly optimistic for our future as we head into '26 and beyond. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Participants

Executives

• Matthew Keating, VP - IR
• Maria Black, President & CEO
• Peter Hadley, CFO

Analysts

• Bryan Bergin, Managing Director at TD Cowen
• Ramsey El-Assal, Managing Director at Barclays
• Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co
• Samad Samana, Managing Director at Jefferies Financial Group
• Tien-tsin Huang, Senior Analyst at JP Morgan
• Kartik Mehta, Executive Managing Director & Director - Research at Northcoast Research Partners LLC
• Scott Wurtzel, SVP - Equity Research at Wolfe Research, LLC
• James Faucette, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley
• David Paige, AVP - Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets
• Dan Dolev, Senior Analyst - FinTech Equity Research at Mizuho Financial Group
• Daniel Jester, US Software Equity Research Analyst at BMO Capital Markets