Paychex Q1 2022 Earnings Report

Paychex EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.89
• Consensus EPS: $0.80
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.09
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.63

Paychex Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.09 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.04 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$46.23 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +16.80%

Paychex Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2022
• Date: 9/29/2021
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2021
• Conference Call Time: 8:00PM ET

Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX), founded in 1971 by B. Thomas "Tom" Golisano and headquartered in Rochester, New York, is a provider of payroll, human resources, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses. The company’s core services include payroll processing and tax filing, employee benefits administration, retirement services, and workers’ compensation administration, designed to simplify back-office operations and help clients comply with regulatory and tax requirements.

Paychex offers an integrated technology platform, marketed under the Paychex Flex brand, which delivers cloud-based payroll, HR, time and attendance, and reporting tools. In addition to software, the company supplies ancillary services such as hiring and onboarding support, employee screening, HR consulting, and various insurance products, enabling clients to scale administrative capabilities as their businesses grow.

While Paychex’s client focus is primarily on the U.S. market and on small- to medium-sized employers, its services are structured to address federal, state and local payroll and compliance needs across multiple jurisdictions. The company combines technology, compliance expertise and service-consulting relationships to serve a broad range of industries that require reliable payroll and HR administration.

Paychex is managed by an executive leadership team and governed by a board of directors. Over its history the company has expanded from a regional payroll processor into a diversified provider of HR outsourcing and technology solutions, positioning itself as a longstanding partner for employers seeking to outsource complex payroll and HR functions.

Paychex Q1 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Q1 outperformance: Revenue rose 16%, total expenses fell 1%, and adjusted diluted EPS jumped 41%, prompting a raise in full-year guidance to ~8% revenue growth and 12–14% adjusted EPS growth.
• Strong sales momentum: Double-digit growth in Management Solutions and PEO/Insurance was driven by digital sales, mid-market wins and HR outsourcing, while client retention reached near-record levels with rising checks per payroll and net new worksite employees.
• Product innovation: Paychex Flex enhancements include AI-driven Retention Insights and Pay Benchmarking, API integration with Indeed for recruiting, and Paychex PreCheck voice-enabled digital pay review, boosting automation and efficiency.
• HR & compliance support: Paychex facilitated over $65 billion in PPP loans, achieved 90% forgiveness rates, launched a retroactive employee retention tax credit service claiming $4 billion, and maintains real-time COVID-19 regulatory resources.
• Retirement leadership: For the 11th consecutive year, Paychex is the largest 401(k) record keeper with 96 000 plans, and its pooled employer plan helps clients meet new state-mandated retirement requirements.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's Paychex first quarter fiscal 2022 earnings conference call. All participants are in a listen only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. You may register to ask a question at any time by pressing the star and one on your touchtone phone. Please note this call may be recorded, and I will be standing by should you need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn today's call over to President and Chief Executive Officer, Martin Mucci. Please go ahead.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Thank you. Thank you for joining us for our discussion of the Paychex first quarter fiscal year 2022 earnings release. Joining me today is Efrain Rivera, our Chief Financial Officer. This morning before the market opened, we released our financial results for the first quarter ended August 31, 2021. You can access our earnings release on our investor relations website. Our Form 10-Q will be filed with the SEC within the next few days. This teleconference is being broadcast over the internet and will be archived and available on our website for approximately 90 days. I will start today's call with an update on the business highlights for the first quarter. Efrain will review the financial results for the quarter and provide an update on fiscal 2022 guidance. We will then open it up for questions.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Fiscal 2022 is off to a very strong start with Q1 results above our expectations. Total revenue increased 16%, with double-digit growth in both Management Solutions and PEO and Insurance solutions, while total expenses declined by 1%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 41%. While results benefited from the compare to a pandemic-impacted first quarter last year and improvements in the economy, our internal execution has been strong, with continued momentum in sales, marketing, and client retention. During the first quarter, positive macroeconomic trends continued. This was evident in the growth in checks per payroll and net increase in worksite employees within our existing base of HR outsourcing clients, particularly with our ASO offering. Our client retention remains near record levels, reflective of both the resilience of small businesses and the value provided by our unique blend of software solutions and HR expertise.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Our sales momentum continued with strong first quarter sales performance as measured by new annualized revenue, reflecting solid performance in digital sales, our mid-market sales, and our HR outsourcing divisions. Our unique value proposition of combining the most comprehensive human capital management software platform with our deep HR expertise continues to resonate with prospective clients. We continue to invest in our sales force and support them through increased digital marketing and lead generation initiatives. We are well-positioned for the upcoming selling season. We continue to leverage our investments in research and development to expand the capabilities of our industry-leading software, Paychex Flex. Our investments in self-service, artificial intelligence, and machine learning and analytics, payments, wearables, and voice recognition allow us to offer cutting-edge technology specifically designed to deliver automation and efficiency to both administrators and their employees.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Our recent Pulse of HR survey reported identified hiring, retention, and software automation to gain efficiencies as the top industry trends facing businesses of all sizes. Our fall release introduces a series of software enhancements to further strengthen the power of Paychex Flex. We currently offer two options for clients in their search for talent, a fully integrated connection, API connection with Indeed, the world's largest job board for clients who are looking for a pool of applicants, and a comprehensive recruiting and applicant tracking offering called Flex Hiring for businesses looking for integrated technology to manage the entire recruiting process. We made enhancements to both to provide clients with tools they need to post jobs, attract candidates, and allow new hires to digitally self onboard via our Flex mobile application.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

With employee retention being a significant issue in this challenging environment, we've introduced several enhancements to provide our clients with insights and offerings designed to help them and make informed decisions and retain their workforce. The introduction of Paychex Retention Insights, our first client-facing predictive analytic, was designed to identify employees who may be at risk of leaving, for example. Second is pay benchmarking, which allows employers to compare performance ratings and compensation details by position to ensure top performers are paid equitably. With our advanced technology, employers can easily compare individual employee compensation against national averages provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to confirm the impact of compensation on retention. We're excited also to announce a new offering called Paychex Pre-Check to further automate the payroll process for employers and provide their employees an opportunity to review their gross to net calculation before payroll is officially processed.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

With Paychex Pre-Check, employees are notified through their channel of choice, their phone, their tablet, their smartwatch, or their smart speakers, that they have a pending pay period to review. The employee leverages Paychex Flex to either confirm the amount of their check or report an issue. Issues are routed electronically to allow clients to focus on exceptions and proactively address issues prior to payday. Paychex Pre-Check leverages our industry-leading Flex Payroll and time and attendance offerings, HR Connect offering, our digital employee case management tool, our advanced analytics module, our five-star rated mobile app, and expands our conversational UI capabilities, including our integration with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri Shortcuts. With these additions, Paychex Flex is the first HCM application to offer integration with three of the major voice assistant platforms.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Paychex Pre-Check was recently recognized by Human Resource Executive magazine and the HR Technology Conference & Exposition with the Top HR Product of the Year Award, an award that spotlights innovation driving the HR technology market. This is a three peat for us, marks the third consecutive year that Paychex has been recognized as a top HR product innovator by HR Tech. In addition to our innovative technology, the expertise and advice we're able to provide clients on HR matters really sets us apart. Our HR professionals have been very important in helping ASO and PEO clients to navigate through the pandemic and in handling the current uncertainty around COVID, with the recent uptick in transmission rates, return-to-office plans, and potential vaccine mandates.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

We are very proud of the work our HR professionals do, and we're honored to be recognized by winning a Gold Human Capital Management Excellence Award from the Brandon Hall Group in the category of Best Use of a Blended Learning Program for our HR Services Excellence Academy training program. This training program prepares our new HR professionals to provide exemplary consulting services to the company's HR outsourcing clients and was recognized for combining instructor-led training with technology-based activities. The expertise we offer our clients also expands to providing resources to assist clients with their many compliance obligations. Our COVID response continues near real-time updates to our COVID-19 help center, where businesses can access key information regarding changing regulations, including the recent Biden administration proposal on vaccine mandates. We assisted our clients in receiving over $65 billion in Paycheck Protection loans. That's 9% of the total PPP loans provided.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Our industry-leading PPP forgiveness tools and reports have been accessed over 500,000 times since its release, with over 90% of businesses now reporting their initial loan has been forgiven. We have also been instrumental in helping clients secure over $4 billion in stimulus funds available through the Employee Retention and Paid Leave Credits. We recently launched an enhanced offering, the Paychex Employee Retention Tax Credit service, to help businesses retroactively identify tax credit eligibility based on wages already paid and file amended returns to claim the credit. On average, Paychex clients are claiming over $150,000 in tax credits, a substantial amount for a small or mid-sized business that is helping them survive and thrive in this pandemic. The pandemic has only exacerbated the retirement crisis in America.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

In response, a growing number of states have introduced state-mandated retirement programs, and our pooled employer plan or PEP offering, as well as traditional plans, have helped our clients handle new state mandates in ways that make financial sense for the employer and employees. For the 11th consecutive year, Paychex has earned the distinction as the largest 401(k) record keeper by total number of 401(k) plans, serving more than 96,000 plans. We have seen continued success in helping clients find retirement plans that suit their employees' needs and help them to attract and retain clients. We are very proud of our performance during the first quarter, but remain vigilant about the rest of the fiscal year given the uncertainty around the macroeconomic environment and the COVID-19 variants.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Our very strong start in sales, continued client base growth, best-in-class operating margin, and increased investment in marketing lead generation and product development have us well-positioned for continued financial and operating success during the remainder of fiscal year 2022 and beyond. I'd like to close my comments by recognizing, again, the company's 50th anniversary. From our founder's start with $3,000 and a few clients, we have transformed into a comprehensive, technology-driven, human capital management software company with over 710,000 clients across the U.S. and Europe. In addition to paying one in every 12 American private sector employees, we are the country's largest 401(k) record keeper, a top 30 U.S. insurance agency, and among the largest providers of HR outsourcing in the U.S., supporting over 1.7 million worksite employees.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

While the size and the breadth of the company has changed, we remain true to our original mission of serving the unique needs of small and mid-sized businesses. That mission was all the more important during the challenges faced over the past 18 months. I'd like to thank and commend our employees for their tireless dedication to innovation and commitment to serving our clients. They have driven our growth over these 50 years. Our shareholders, we thank them for their investment with us along the way. I will now turn the call over to Efrain Rivera to review our financial results for the first quarter. Efrain?

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Thanks, Marty, good morning to everyone. I'd like to remind you to start that today's conference call contains forward-looking statements. Refer to the customary disclosures. I'll move through my comments relatively quickly so we can get to your questions. I'll periodically refer to non-GAAP measures such as adjusted operating income, EBITDA, et cetera. Please refer to our press release investor presentation for more information on these measures, especially on the investor presentation, too, if you want to have a clear roadmap in terms of what's included and what's not on the adjustments we make. I'll start by providing some of the key points for the quarter, then follow it with greater detail in some areas. I'll finish with a review of our fiscal 2022 outlook, which, as you saw, was revised upwards. First quarter reflected strong internal execution, improved economic environment, and favorable compares against the prior period.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Both service revenue and total revenue increased 16% to $1.1 billion, as we benefited from improved employment levels, higher client counts across all of our solutions. Growth rates were bolstered by a more easy compare to the prior year first quarter that was impacted by the pandemic. As Marty said, we also had very strong execution in the quarter. Within service revenue, Management Solutions increased 17% to $805 million, and PEO and insurance revenue increased 14% to $263 million. Interest on funds held for clients decreased 3% for the quarter, as lower average interest rates and realized gains were partially offset by higher average investment balances. We'll see what happens in the balance of the year as interest rates have started to move higher.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Total expenses decreased 1% to $640 million, excluding one-time costs of $31 million that occurred during the first quarter of fiscal 2021, expenses increased a modest 4%. The growth in expenses was impacted by higher PEO direct insurance costs, increases in fringe benefits, and continued investment in product development and information technology. One thing I'd like to point out here that's important is if you go back to the first quarter of 2020, our performance was strong even when we measure against that quarter. Not only did we have strong compares against a COVID impacted quarter, but go back to 2020 and you'll see this was a strong quarter overall. I think it says fundamentally something important about how the company has transformed over the last two years. Op income for this quarter increased 56% to $443 million with an operating margin of 41%.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Adjusted operating margin was also 41% during the first quarter, compared with 33.8% for the prior year, an expansion of more than 700 basis points. Effective income tax was 24.9% compared to 23.4%. The first quarter was impacted by an increase in state tax provisions. Both periods reflect net discrete tax benefits related to stock-based compensation benefits. As you know, we exclude those for purposes of our adjusted calculations. Adjusted net income increased 42%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 41%. Adjusted net income increased 42%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 41% for the quarter to $323 million and $0.89 per share, respectively. Investments in income. Our primary goal, as you know, is to protect principal and optimize liquidity. We continue to invest in high credit quality securities.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

The long-term portfolio has an average yield of 1.8% and an average duration of 3.4 years. Our combined portfolios have earned an average rate of return of 1.1% for the quarter, down from 1.3% in the prior year. Let's look at our financial position. It's, in a nutshell, pretty strong. It remains strong with restricted cash and total corporate investments over $1.2 billion. Our borrowings were $805 million as of August 31. Cash flow from operations was $386 million during the first quarter, a robust increase of 79% from the same period last year. Free cash flow generated was $354 million, up 83% year-over-year. The increases were driven by higher net income and changes in working capital. We paid quarterly dividends of $0.66 per share for a total of $238 million during the first quarter. Our 12-month rolling return on equity was a stellar 42%.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Let me turn to guidance for the current fiscal year ending May 31, 2022. This outlook reflects the current macro environment, which saw improvement in the quarter, especially in June and July. First quarter results exceeded expectations. As all of you know, there's uncertainty about the trajectory of the remainder of the next several quarters, we've incorporated this into our expectations for the remainder of the year. Our crystal ball is clearer the nearer we are and a little bit less clear as we go out and now are into the spring of next year. With all that said, Management Solutions, we expect it to grow now approximately 8%. That's guided upward from approximately 7%. PEO & Insurance Solutions is expected to grow in the range of 8%-10%. That's similar to what we said previously.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Interest on funds held for clients, still expected to be flat year-over-year. Total revenue is expected to grow approximately 8%, again guided upward from 7%. Adjusted operating income is expected to be in the range of 38%-39%, up from previous guidance of approximately 38%. If there's a point I would make simply is this, that we went through a pandemic. We made a lot of adjustments in the operating margin, and our returns are really, really strong. Adjusted EBITDA margin now is expected to be approximately 43%, up from previous guidance of approximately 42%. Other income and expense net is expected to be in the range of $23 million-$26 million. Our previous guidance was in the range of $33 million-$37 million.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

The change is due to certain non-operating income received during the first quarter, and then specifically, before I get the question on that, let me just say that we have invested in a technology fund. We received a mark that ended up in us recognizing income on that technology fund, which invests in early-stage technology companies. Our effective income tax is expected to be in the range of 24%-25%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share is expected to grow in the range of 12%-14%. We previously guided to growth of 10%-12%. Turning to the second quarter, we currently anticipate total revenue growth will be in the range of 7%-8% and adjusted operating margin is expected to be in the range of 36%-37%.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Before I get the call, I will just say on everything, there's an element of conservatism in what we say, in part because the macro environment does impact. We don't obviously have a crystal ball on what's going to happen in the second quarter and beyond, we're trying to create an all-weather forecast. Now, of course, all of what I just said is subject to current assumptions, which can change given the current environment. We'll update you again on the second quarter call. I'll refer you to our investor slides on the website for more information. Now, with all of that, I'll turn it over to Marty.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Thank you, Efrain. Ashley, we will now open the call for questions, please.

[Operator]

Certainly. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your touchtone phone. You may withdraw your question at any time by pressing the pound key. Once again, that's star one. We'll take our first question from David Togut with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

[David Togut, Analyst at Evercore ISI]

Thank you. Good morning, and very nice results.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Thank you.

[David Togut, Analyst at Evercore ISI]

Duly noted on the conservatism for the rest of the year. The first quarter revenue and earnings outperformance actually exceeds the increase in the annual guidance by about $18 million in revenue and adjusted EPS by $0.03. Can you flesh out your thinking on the remaining three quarters of the year? Perhaps talking about your outlook for employment, bookings, and any other factors besides conservatism that might be keeping the next three quarters, let's say below, where they might have been given the first quarter outperformance.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah, let me handle that, David. I think there's two pieces to the way we look at the year, what we see in the first half and what we see in the back half. I would say with respect to the EPS, we've factored into our assumptions additional hiring as the year progresses, which will add a bit to expenses. I think that's the first part of the equation. The second part is that we do not, at this point in our guidance, contemplate that the unemployment picture is going to change significantly. To the extent that it does, that it is significantly or it's improved from where we are, that would be upside to our case. We simply are at a point where we had in the first quarter a nice rebound in terms of the number of employees on the payroll.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

That obviously helps from a revenue standpoint. What happens going forward, we simply have to try to estimate what we think is a reasonable, as I said, all-weather scenario. Those are really kind of the two things that are driving it. I would say this on the back half of the year, because I'll get questions on that. The back half of the year, we'll see where we come out of Q2 and then get a better feel for it. Understand, we were very strong in the first quarter. There is conservatism in what we've guided to, and we could do better. As everyone on the call knows, there is uncertainty about a number of things in the macro environment that we want to make sure that investors have completely taken into account, and to assure investors that we've taken it completely into account.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

All of that mouthful was in the forecast.

[David Togut, Analyst at Evercore ISI]

Thanks for that. Just as a quick follow-up, Efrain, you called out strength in mid-market bookings in the quarter. Is that an industry phenomenon where mid-market generally was stronger than expected in Q2, or is that a function of market share gains?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Well, this is Marty. I think we were going fairly slower than we expected in the second half of last year, and we really had a nice pickup in the first quarter. I don't think it's necessarily the environment. I think this was really much more success in sales. We had done a number of things in training, of course, the product ads that we have been doing from a technology standpoint to the software. I think it was really more performance. We're really pleased with the pickup in mid-market, and we think we're really well prepared for selling season as well.

[David Togut, Analyst at Evercore ISI]

Understood. Thank you very much.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Okay.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Thanks.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Ramsey El-Assal with Barclays. Please go ahead.

[Ramsey El-Assal, Analyst at Barclays]

Hi, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my question this morning. I wanted to ask about sort of what you see as the biggest drivers of this nice margin beat in the quarter. I know you mentioned you made some pandemic-related expense adjustments. I'm just trying to understand the degree to which of those adjustments you made will prove to be the most sort of impactful and lasting.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah. Ramsey, I made a comment during my prepared comments about the compare to 2020, and I think that's important. You can go back. These are matters of public disclosure. If you look at what happened with expenses, our expenses are pretty flat against 2020. There's two things, one of which is likely non-recurring, but one of which is very recurring and is part of our strategy. I keep harping on the idea that we've been on this journey of transformation as a technology-enabled services provider. Look, I can say whatever I want to, and Marty can say whatever he wants to, but if it's not evident in the P&L, that speaks for itself. If you look at our expenses, they're essentially flat with 2020 quarter one. Now, why is that? Obviously, they should be somewhat up.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

There's an element of this that really has to do with delayed or deferred hiring. The labor market is tight. It's not necessarily easy to get all of the people that you want in place. We are adequately hired, but we're a little bit behind where we would've expected to be hired at this point. Part of the question that David asked earlier is why wouldn't you see even more flow through? The short answer is that we expect to hire as we go through the year. Perhaps not at the rate that we would have previously, but certainly at a rate that is higher than the first quarter. Leave that to a side. The reality is that when we took a restructuring charge in the first quarter of last year, it yielded benefits this quarter.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

When we looked at our headcount and looked at those metrics of efficiency, we are more efficient as a company today than we were in 2020, and that is what's driving a lot of what you're seeing. More investment in technology, less investment in other areas of the business that are not needed, frankly, at this point, is driving the efficiency that you're seeing and the results that we deliver.

[Ramsey El-Assal, Analyst at Barclays]

I see. Okay. One follow-up from me. In the slide presentation, I think under Management Solutions, you mentioned some pricing realization. And I just am curious, have you seen any changes on the sort of positive or negative side to the pricing environment as we emerge from the pandemic? I guess it's a backdoor way of asking about the competitive environment and whether there's more opportunity or less opportunity or the same amount of opportunity as before to modify prices.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

I think we still have very good pricing power. Based on that, I think we've seen the revenue per client go up, and we've sold them more products as well. We've really seen that, I think from a competitive standpoint, when you just get right to that point, I don't think we've seen a lot of changes. What we have seen, though, is that the work we were able to do for clients during COVID-19, the support we were able to provide them, and the products that we were able to provide them to help them get loans, now to help them in a really great automated fashion, get an Employee Retention Tax Credit, for example. This makes a huge difference from a competitive standpoint of retention, and even from a prospect perspective.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

From a prospect perspective, it's, "Hey, were you even aware that you could get this Employee Retention Tax Credit? Do you know how much this can bring you to help you with hiring new employees or retaining your current employees?" For our current clients, the level of support we were able to show them and demonstrate to them during a very difficult time really has made the difference. I think the competitive environment is just as strong, but I think we've been able to have an opportunity and then have shown what we can do, and that's given us an even stronger position than we would've had beforehand.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Interesting. All right. Thanks so much.

[Ramsey El-Assal, Analyst at Barclays]

Okay.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Thanks, Ramsey.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Bryan Bergin with Cowen. Please go ahead, your line is open.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Hi, Bryan.

[Bryan Bergin, Analyst at Cowen]

Hi. Good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Can you comment on how demand trended within the quarter? Results and commentary is certainly positive here, but taking into account the conservative view, I'm curious if you actually did see any deterioration as you exited August or even in September relative to maybe June and July.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yeah, Bryan, not really, except from the sales side, we have not. We think we're well prepared as to kind of our selling season that picks up here over the next month or so and toward the end of the year. We think we're very well prepared. We haven't really seen anything. It's been pretty consistent through the quarter. We really, again, I'll mention mid-market was strong. Any digital sales were strong, and we also have seen very good results on our HR outsourcing, both PEO and ASO. It's not like it started strong and in the beginning of the summer went down. It actually has been pretty consistent, and we actually think there's some opportunity from a sales perspective this month and over the next few months across the board, including retirement, and retirement has been very strong as well.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Bryan, I don't want to anticipate what the base of your question was, but I would say if we looked at the macro indicators that we were seeing, June and July were really strong. These aren't micro, I want to make that clear. June and July were strong, and August was softer. We'll see when we come out of September. At this stage, to Marty's point, it's not impacting the business.

[Bryan Bergin, Analyst at Cowen]

Okay. Understood. Then on the Management Solutions growth, can you give us a sense of the mix of the drivers at 17% in that outperformance there? How should we think about check volume recovery versus new units and cross-sell versus pricing? Any of these stand out more than others?

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Good question and fair point. The first thing I'd say is to sort of take a step back, because Management Solutions is not entirely a payroll game. It's really in important respects, got three pieces. The HCM part, Retirement Services, and HR outsourcing. Those are the three big buckets, if you will, in Management Solutions. I would say I couldn't see anything on the PEO that was a major revenue line that wasn't up double digits. On the HCM side, we benefited from upper single-digit pays per control. That was helpful. Now, that's not surprising. We had a pretty big decline in the first quarter. In addition to that, there was pricing and also client base growth. All of those were driving that result.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

On the HR outsourcing side, we simply had a great year last year, had more work site employees served, that drove that result. On Retirement Services, Marty talked about that. Retirement Services is gaining steam across the country, and we are certainly benefiting from it, with mandates in multiple states now. Our PEP product, we feel we are, and I don't feel it, we believe it and see it, that we're well-positioned. When you look at all of those three, it took all of those three to drive that result. It wasn't solely an HCM story. I think it plays to the fact that we sell in an integrated way, and we've benefited from that in terms of the point that Marty made earlier, which is we're getting better revenue per client.

[Bryan Bergin, Analyst at Cowen]

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Okay.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Kevin McVeigh with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

[Kevin McVeigh, Analyst at Credit Suisse]

Great. Thanks so much.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Hi, Kevin.

[Kevin McVeigh, Analyst at Credit Suisse]

Hey, Efrain. Hey, Marty. Hey, Efrain, you made a comment on the call that the company's fundamentally transformed, and I firmly believe that's the case. I wonder if you could help us frame where you think you're going to see that. It sounds like the retention continues to bump at record highs. Is there a new range for that? I'm just going to ask one question, but just maybe weave in the client growth, right? You picked up 75,000 clients. That's 11% growth. I don't think you've ever done that. It seems like the business is poised for structurally higher growth. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here, but can you help us understand where that sits, particularly given the leverage on the margin side as well?

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Kevin, I'd say the 75 is probably over a period of years. We disclosed that we were up above 710, and we had been in the high 600 a year before. To your point, directionally, our client growth has been strong over the past several years, in part impacted by this move to digital that Marty talked about. That's one part. The second part is that the move to digital brings with it the ability to operate at higher levels of efficiency, which is what you're seeing in the P&L. That's a big emphasis within the company, and I would say, shout out to all of my colleagues in operations who've done a phenomenal job and to the IT and product group who also make that happen. Can't happen any other way. I'd say that's the second point.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

The third point, Kevin, to your point, last year we ended at, as I mentioned, folks on the call, we were in the high 80s% in terms of revenue retention. There is a natural ceiling on the amount of revenue growth I'm sorry, revenue retention we can have because of some of the markets that we operate in, meaning the smaller clients tend to attrit more rapidly than larger clients. All of that moved up. Previous to the pandemic, final point, we were in the 83%-84% range. I would say that's the new Mendoza line for retention, and last year we beat that. We hope to beat that and build off of that. All of my colleagues in operations share that goal.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

I think also, Kevin, when you talk about transformation, having the chance to think about our 50 years in business and how it's changed so dramatically, the software enhancements that we're making consistently in front of our clients, it is providing them so much information, and the artificial intelligence and the data analytics that we're providing and just talked about today, with Paychex Pre-Check, really allowing employees to be alerted that here is their pay for this pay period. They can answer that. They hear about that on their mobile phone. They can hear about it from their smart speaker. We're tied in now. We're the only company tied into all three of the major voice-assisted platforms. It's saying, "Your pay stub is ready. You'd like to check it," and you can respond that you have checked it.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Think of the efficiency that it brings the employer and the administrator of the employer, the client, and the employee as well now this is really helping continue our retention at the levels that Efrain's talking about. Even though there's business failures in small business that keeps us at some point, at some level, this is really taking it to the highest level, and that on top of the COVID work that we did and the ability to update them and really provide support and dollars through the Employee Retention Tax Credit, is making a big difference, and it's really a very different company. It is a software-driven company that is using artificial intelligence and data analytics to give a tremendous amount of efficiency to our clients.

[Kevin McVeigh, Analyst at Credit Suisse]

Makes sense. Congratulations again.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Thank you.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Thanks, Kevin.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Jason Kupferberg with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Mihir Bhatia, Analyst at Bank of America]

Hi, good morning. This is Mihir on to Jason. Firstly, thank you for taking our questions. I wanted to ask, maybe just staying on a similar topic in terms of just what you're seeing in the market right now. We've talked a little bit about new business creation being pretty healthy recently. Has that continued in recent months? Is there any type of quantification you can provide, just for example, in terms of the % of your wins coming from newly formed businesses or your win rates as you compete for these new businesses?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yeah, I would say, new business formations are down a little bit from last year now, but they're up from 2020. They're still up very strong from pre-pandemic levels, up 20%-30% over pre-pandemic levels. Now, there was a big jump last first quarter, and frankly, the first half of our fiscal year as we think about it, in new business formations. They were up 40%, 50%. Now they're up really 20%-30% over the previous pandemic years. We do very well with brand-new businesses. We certainly do well, as I mentioned, it picked up some real positive performance on the mid-market, but we're also doing very well with brand new clients that are starting up. Obviously, we still have great relationships with CPAs and as well as banks in getting referrals.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

We're also able to do a lot of these sales digitally, as we've really improved the ability for our clients to go online, look at our product, demo the product even on their mobile phone or online, as well as then go right through to actually starting to set up and onboard themselves all digitally, without talking to anyone. The digital sales is becoming a bigger part of brand new businesses, obviously, and we're very proud of that.

[Mihir Bhatia, Analyst at Bank of America]

Thank you. Just if I could ask about the margin increase in the guidance. Is that being driven by the top line growth and some efficiencies of scale just from that top line growth flowing through? Are there also been any changes to your underlying investment or expense plans for the year? Thank you.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah, let me just answer that. I think there always is some element of both, but I think it's driven more so by improvements on top line revenue. I would say that because we have been able to do the things that we have done or the actions we've taken on the expense side, now when $1 flows through, you get even more benefit than you would have otherwise. Although, as everyone knows, we have industry-leading margins to begin with.

[Mihir Bhatia, Analyst at Bank of America]

Thank you.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

All right. Thanks.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Andrew Nicholas with William Blair. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

[Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair]

Great. Thank you. Good morning. Can you touch on the PEO performance versus insurance performance in the quarter? I know you're maintaining your guide on that revenue line in the aggregate, is there any change to your expectations at that underlying level in terms of growth through the remainder of the year?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

I would say both are actually growing quite well. HR outsourcing in total is growing well, and I think we've positioned ourselves very well on the PEO side as well as ASO. I would say, the PEO side has picked back up more recently. I think we talked about it last year, maybe the last couple of quarters, that insurance wasn't as in demand at that time because of getting through the pandemic. That is starting to come back now, more because of a sense of retention of your employees and hiring your employees. As you know, it's a very competitive market out there. Now the insurance plans, your health insurance, et cetera, your dental, your voluntary insurances, they're becoming very much a competitive offering to attract employees in a tough market and retain those that you have.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

The interest in insurance has picked back up, both our ASO and PEO, frankly, are double-digit growers and have done very well in the first quarter.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Andrew, when you do the arithmetic, probably part of your question also is why not increase the guide? The short answer is that PEO continues to do pretty well, and the reason why you're at eight to 10 versus double digit and above is that insurance is simply growing slower. Still where we expected it to be. We anticipate it growing slower than PEO for the year. Now, we had a good first quarter, that could prove to be incorrect. The other point that I would make is that, and everyone's going to struggle with this, which is had a Q4, everyone had a very strong Q4, the compares against Q4 are the ones that are a little bit tough at this point to gauge completely both on the top and the bottom line.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

We have a view of it, but we'll need to refine that as we go through the year.

[Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair]

No, that's really helpful. Thank you. Maybe a longer-term strategic question. You talked a lot about success with digital sales. Is that something that you can apply your learnings and capabilities from to the PEO market, or is that too involved of a sale, or is there some middle ground that you're approaching or hoping to target longer term that could make a more efficient process? Just wondering how that could be part of the strategy and maybe the puts and takes to consider on the PEO front. Thank you.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yeah. No, sure. We're actually already involved in it. It's basically, what you're doing is also automating and digitizing a lot of the underwriting process and the information that you have to get. Onboarding of clients, including in the PEO, we're looking more and more to go to employees to help them self-onboard. Makes it easier on the client, on the prospect itself as they're onboarding. Sending a link to employees to say, "Hey, give me your information. Load your own information in and get started." That will transform, I think, over to the PEO side and certainly automation in the underwriting side, which will make the whole process faster. Oh, yeah, there's going to be no limit to the selling from a digital standpoint.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

People are going to want to continue to find ways to have everything automated for them to be able to go in online, set themselves up, look at the product, and buy. You may still have some, certainly, sales rep involvement on the complication of insurance plans and so forth, but we're always looking to make that easier, and anything that a client can do for themselves or allow their employees to do for themselves is exactly where we're going strategically, and we've already made a number of steps that way.

[Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair]

Great. Thanks again.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

[Kartik Mehta, Analyst at Northcoast Research]

Hey, good morning, Marty and Efrain. Marty, I wanted to ask a little bit about sales distribution. I know this might be a little dated, at one point, accountants accounted for a third, I think direct sales accounted for a third, and then kind of others. You've talked a lot about digital sales improving and being a bigger part. I'm wondering, has the sales distribution, or how Paychex acquires clients changed at all as a result of all the changes?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yeah, Kartik, it definitely has. Accountants and banks are still important to us. Accountants in particular, great relationship with them for many, many years, and the assistance that we give them and support we give them for their clients as well. That has definitely come down as a percentage, and digital has gone up as a percentag. I would say it's been a pretty steady change, and I expect it will probably even accelerate. Much more of our lead generation comes now from the marketing investments that we make. Marketing has become a very important part of the sales function and how sales gets their leads, and then frankly, how clients view us and then come in online and just decide to buy.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

As I mentioned, many clients now, certainly under 10 employees at least, can come into our website because they've seen us advertised somewhere or online through SEM and SEO and know that we're an expert in this field, come in, demo the product, compare the product, and even buy the product and start to set themselves up. Yeah, it's becoming certainly a bigger part of it. Of course, that leads to efficiencies that Efrain's been talking about.

[Kartik Mehta, Analyst at Northcoast Research]

Efrain, just on the float, we've seen obviously rates move up a little bit over the last couple of weeks. I imagine you'll benefit from any kind of wage inflation on the float portfolio. Any changes to how you might manage that over the next six to 12 months? Are you anticipating wage inflation to help the float portfolio?

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah, no, we do. I think that clearly in the first quarter to help offset some of the drag. The short answer is, it's interesting. The market kind of moves in some ways, based on concerns about inflation and stagflation. In our case, that expectation is largely a positive when you look at it from a float and from a pricing perspective. Those aren't necessarily negatives to us, where I would say we're in a heightened state of scrutiny on how to position the portfolio based on what we're seeing in credit markets and on the investment side.

[Kartik Mehta, Analyst at Northcoast Research]

Perfect. Thank you very much.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Okay.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

You're welcome. Thank you, Kartik.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

[Jeff Silber, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Thanks so much. How you doing? Earlier you talked about some of the labor tightness impacting your own ability to hire a bit. I know we talked a little bit about last quarter, about potentially that easing up a little bit in September when folks go back to school, childcare is easier, and maybe when the unemployment subsidies kind of peter out. Did you see any impact, or have you seen any impact in recent weeks of things getting a bit easier?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

From a macro standpoint, I would say it's not showing up yet. I think what it's demonstrated to us, and I started to see this through some of the data analytics work that our teams are doing here from our Small Business Index, is that it's not just the unemployment because you could see some of the states had cut the extra unemployment benefit out, and it really was not making a big difference in who was going back to work. I think what you're finding is it's going to take a little bit longer in the market. It's definitely still a tough hiring market. I think that the cash balances, everyone, you can see this data. Cash balances are high.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Checking accounts are high because people haven't either spent, or they also have gotten other stimulus money, whether it's child care kind or child benefits that they're getting right now. People are in a pretty good stage, and I think they're still trying to test it out. I think there's just still healthcare worries about their businesses that they're going back to. Do they have to wear masks? Is there a mandate or not? I think it's going to take a couple more months to shake out. Certainly, the hiring has gotten better. The hiring growth in our Small Business Index has gotten much stronger the last couple of months, especially in leisure and hospitality sectors and in other services sectors. There's still a challenge out there in the hiring.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

We expect it to pick up, but it's going to be a little bit longer than just, it's not just the unemployment benefits that made the difference. Okay.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Okay.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Great.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Samad Samana with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[Samad Samana, Analyst at Jefferies]

Hey, good morning, Marty and Efrain.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Hi.

[Samad Samana, Analyst at Jefferies]

Congrats on the good results. I wanted to maybe ask a question on your own hiring. I know you guys talked about being a little bit behind. Can you tell us maybe which part of the organization? Is it broadly, or is it inside the quota-carrying sales rep side, or is it on the R&D side? Just how should we think about where you're playing catch up on the hiring?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

I think it's more on the service side, in frontline service. There's some in sales, but it's kind of spread, and it's not an overall large number in any sales division, so we feel good about that. It's probably the hardest on the frontline service providers. John Gibson, who runs all the services, done a great job with our HR team to find very creative ways, though the hiring has really picked back up. We've shifted to some different ways to encourage new employees to come in, different work schedules, different abilities, certainly work from home, and a number of other benefits that they can get and the tools and support that they have. It's picking back up now, particularly just in the last 30 days. As Efrain said, it's a tough market out there to hire, particularly frontline service people.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

As we said, we still are seeing very strong client retention. We're getting the job done, and we're certainly driving more calls to the website, which our chatbot, our automated response to service questions and other questions are being answered 60% of the time by the automated response. You can always reach someone live at Paychex 24 hours by seven days a week, 365 days a year. We are certainly looking for efficiencies, and we're hiring very creatively, and it's starting to pick back up again.

[Samad Samana, Analyst at Jefferies]

Helpful. Efrain, I know we've talked a lot about the expense controls and how that's benefited the margin structurally, but gross margins have also continued to melt up nicely even with, call it headwinds to some of that high margin PEPM revenue. How should I think about maybe the tech stack on Flex and how that's driving gains on the gross margin side, and maybe how much more room is there on the software stack to drive gross margin gains?

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah, great question, Samad. Let me answer it in two ways. The first, I'd say, is when you look at our gross margins and compare Ignore for a second our operating margins. If you look at our gross margins and compare against industry, we still are right at the top, and that's against the people who are, air quotes, "pure software players." Look at the data. That's what I would say. We're proud of that. We understand that. We manage to that. To your point, when I look at the data, and I mentioned, I think in response to an earlier question, it might've been Ramsey's question, about the strength of Management Solutions. What was really notable about that was that it was widespread across the three major buckets of Management Solutions, retirement, HR, and HCM.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

What we're seeing is that our sales team has done a really good job of selling the entire, we call value proposition of the company through what we call the Power of 3,000. The idea is that when we get in front of a client, we want to sell them the entirety of that value proposition. Just one small digression on that point. You can only do that if you've got an integrated system, not just HCM, but integrated ancillary. When you sell that proposition and now you've upgraded to a module, there's essentially very low variable cost associated with that. That's really what's helping to drive what we see. We have been selling a bit higher in terms of client size, but more importantly, we have been selling more modules, especially on high-value ancillaries like HR. You're right.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

All of that is driving the improved margin performance that you're seeing.

[Samad Samana, Analyst at Jefferies]

Great. Very helpful. Thanks, Efrain.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Good.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Bryan Keane with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

[Bryan Keane, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Hi, guys. Good morning. Just wanted to ask on Management Solutions from maybe a slightly different angle. If you look at the revenue growth, I think it was up 500 basis points for Street estimate, and it was better than your expectations. I'm just trying to figure out what exactly was the surprising strength in the quarter for you guys, and just trying to figure out why that wouldn't repeat itself maybe in the next few quarters.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Well, I'd say this, Bryan. The first thing is that pays per control were solid. They were up, as I said, upper single digits. You won't see that. We don't think you'll see that in future quarters. That's going to present a little bit of a compare issue. We did have better pricing in the quarter than we had versus the pandemic-impacted quarter last year. What happened is we did take steps in that first quarter of last year to hold off on price increases until we had had a chance to let our customers take a breather. That was unique to the quarter, and as we anniversaried it, that helped. The third thing is that clients were, our client count was up significantly versus where we started the year last year.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

All of those things made Q1, the confluence of those things were really important. Finally, HR really took off in the 1st quarter of last year. We saw the strength through the remainder of the year, but when you got to 1st quarter, now you saw the full annualized impact of that strength in HR. Hey, Bryan, there's an element of conservatism in our numbers. We'll see where we end up, but we're not going to have the same revenue growth in the second quarter. That's why, in addition to everything else, we know that Q1 had certain factors in it that don't repeat in other quarters, but there are some underlying factors that we've talked about through the balance of this call that we'll repeat as we go through, and we're a little bit conservative on the rest of the year.

[Bryan Keane, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Got it. No, that's helpful for the going forward. How about the quarter itself? When you guided originally, I don't think you expected it to be that strong, and some of those factors you just outlined, you would've known about.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah.

[Bryan Keane, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Comparative basis. Just trying to figure out the surprise in the quarter. What could possibly surprise that much?

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah. The short answer, as you're pressing me down, is that it was better in almost all of those categories. That's the short of it.

[Bryan Keane, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Got it. The only other question I had is just looking at some of your metrics compared to some of the global employment metrics and factors you see, your metrics seem to be stronger than kind of what we're seeing in the overall, and just trying to figure out if there's any thoughts or reasons why your data might be a little bit showing more strength than what we're seeing on a more macro basis?

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Frank, which ones, like employment growth type of thing?

[Bryan Keane, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Yeah. In particular, employment.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Well, I do think that the growth in small business and small to mid-size. Remember, our Small Business Index, that piece of it is focused on clients under 50 employees, and I think there's been a nice recovery in leisure and hospitality in particular. You're getting some back, even though many restaurants and hospitality service places are still struggling to find enough people, the growth and the recovery over the summer has been very strong. People have been getting back to work, and the demand has been there certainly. I think we might be seeing a little bit. They fell harder, remember as well. They fell a lot harder than larger businesses, and our study is focused more on 50 and below. They took a really hard hit.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Many of them closed when you compare to last year. Now they're recovering faster because they had a bigger hit last year, I would say in general, so.

[Bryan Keane, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

No, that's helpful. Makes sense. Congrats on the success.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Thank you.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Thank you, Bryan.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Eugene Simuni with Moffett. Please go ahead, your line is open.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Hi, Eugene.

[Eugene Simuni, Analyst at Moffett]

Hi, guys. Thank you very much. First, wanted to come back quickly to retention levels.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yep.

[Eugene Simuni, Analyst at Moffett]

There's been, I think, a pretty broad-based expectation that retention levels might start to come down across the industry really as the economy opens up, as activity picks up. Sounds like in the first quarter, you guys still achieving very high levels of retention. Are you seeing any indication of kind of high churn as activity picks up? As you're looking out into the rest of the year, are you still expecting some deterioration in retention as that may be part of the conservatism?

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah, I think it may happen. We've been very happy with the retention, obviously hitting record levels last year. I do think what we're continuing to find from clients is we have really gained a lot, as I said earlier, from the COVID work that we did, the ability to help them turn in their paperwork for their loans in the last 18 months. We have 90% of our clients have been able to have their loans forgiven. A lot of that is we made it easy for them. We hear this time and time again that they were at a very dire point of going out of business, yet we helped them get the loans. We partnered with three fintech companies to provide them another source for loans.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Now we're coming back to them saying, "Hey, you can have an Employee Retention Tax Credit, and you can get the cash right away. It's not like waiting. Here's how you do it. We can do it all for you in a very automated fashion. You can have, on average, $150,000 worth of cash in your pocket that you don't have to repay to the government." It's a huge stimulus to them. It really has helped our retention. It gave us an opportunity to kind of show the full power of Paychex. On top of that, as Efrain said, I think more and more of those clients then saw the HR support as well. Not just on the payroll side, but also in the HR support.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Now they still need us to really help them through vaccine mandates. What do I do with work from home policies? How do I bring people back to work? How do I handle hybrid? How do I coach employees? All of the technology that we're showing them has really come to use for them, even some of the things that are so out there from a digital standpoint that their employees can do from their mobile phone. It really has given us a chance to show them, "Hey, here's all the things you can do to retain, hire, and grow your business, and give you some cash in your pocket," and that has really helped retention a great deal. Eugene, to your point too, we had a great year in retention. We don't anticipate that we will be at that level.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

You see the impact of that.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Retention over the course of the year, so that has some impact on where we get to. Where will we end up? We'll have a better sense of that when we get through Q2. We're not anticipating, nor are we planning on the idea that we're going to be at the same level of retention that we were last year. We'd love to do it, but probably not a realistic planning assumption.

[Eugene Simuni, Analyst at Moffett]

Got it. Okay, thanks.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

All right.

[Eugene Simuni, Analyst at Moffett]

Secondly, wanted to quickly ask about the ASO PEO potential upsell opportunity. You mentioned it in the past couple of quarters that with the record strength in ASO growth, there might be some opportunity to convert some ASO clients to PEO clients now that folks are more interested or open to switching insurance providers. Are you pursuing that initiative? Is it yielding results? Is there more opportunity there to convert to greater PEO growth?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Sure. One, we've had a lot of success in, as we said, in double-digit growth in both ASO and PEO. We've been able to go into the client base and get them to an HR outsourcing product first. As I mentioned, as you just noted, yeah, the insurance is coming back. We had a good quarter on insurance. You're seeing that in the PEO side in that it really is a environment where the number one or two issue with clients is how do I hire and retain people? Then how do I get more efficient? The hire and retain has become not just about comp, meaning pay, but it has become about benefits as well. It's been very important from that standpoint.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

We are having some success, certainly, in continuing to upgrade our current clients and sell brand-new clients as well on both PEO and ASO solutions.

[Eugene Simuni, Analyst at Moffett]

Got it. Thank you very much.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

All right.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Mark Marcon with Baird. Please go ahead.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Hey, good morning, Marty and Efrain.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Morning, Mark.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Congrats on the quarter.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Thank you.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Just going to one of the conservatism questions.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yes.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

In some states, such as Florida, where they did see a spike in Delta.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Did you see any sort of negative impact with regards to the weekly revenue trends when the spike occurred?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

I would say, actually, the best job growth has been in the South. Even while they obviously have more cases, you're seeing the best job growth from a macro standpoint and from some of our sales in Florida, in Georgia, in Texas. That is also a function of great demand, right, that's going there, and there's more people there migrating there, as everyone knows. You're seeing more businesses open up there. You're seeing more people available to fill jobs. That's helping more demand. That's increasing checks per payroll, that kind of thing. I would say no. I'm sure that has had some impact, but overall, states like Florida have actually been quite positive.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Yeah, Mark, it's just been dwarfed.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yeah.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

The recovery there. Probably if we were in a steady state, you'd see more of that. In the data, as Marty said, the recovery in hospitality and leisure has been.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yeah.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

A big plus in Florida.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Okay. Even during the weeks when things started heating up for them from a caseload perspective, it didn't have a dent.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

No, we didn't see it, no.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Okay, great. With regards to your recent products and technology launches, this has probably been one of the most active periods for you as it relates to it. I'm wondering, when we go through the list, whether it's Paychex Pre-Check, the Retention Insights, pay benchmarking, talent dashboard, so on and so forth, which ones are you the most excited about? Which ones are seeing the highest attach rates? Which ones are yielding the most incremental revenue?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yeah, I think Paychex Pre-Check will. It's just a staggered approach as it's going out now. I think something like that will have big efficiency gains for clients, which will help a lot on retention. We're not charging additional costs for that, revenue for that. That's part of the service that a client opts in for. When you hear that clients are trying to be more efficient, it's things like that that are really going to help on the retention and I think the revenue per client, so the kind of price and the ability we get from that. We're very excited about that one. Also, that it is tied to the technology. It's tied to smart speakers. We're the only company tied to all three major voice assistant platforms.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

It's just a whole new way for clients to be able to handle things with their employees to say, "Hey, your paycheck is ready. Would you like to check it, your pay stub?" From an employer standpoint, that you get a Alexa that's telling you, "Hey, you have three things to do today as an employer." These kind of things are really tying much better retention than anything. The Paychex Retention Insights, for example, really just uses the artificial intelligence to a great deal. You can check not only pay, but we look at 15, 20 different indicators that are in the payroll, in the system, in the software that will say, "Here's your performance rating of this person. Here's their pay is below the national average based on BLS, and their pay is below the rest of the team that have this job category of your own company.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Hey, watch out on the dashboard, this person may be likely to leave you." When clients start seeing that, it's not as much about the revenue directly from that software, it's from the retention of saying, "I can't live without this," just like the mobile app has been like that for us. To have a five-star mobile app that employees don't want to leave because it's easy to use and they can do so many things themselves is great from a retention standpoint. We're really excited about the level of speed that we're putting out software enhancements and the strength of being much more of a technology company and software company, and that that's leading to retention.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Great. Given the recent introduction, could it possibly offset some of the headwinds you noted in terms of the fall when you're thinking about retention?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yep. It could. It certainly is going to help keep it up there. I think, as Efrain mentioned earlier, Mark, and you know so well, there is a natural level of just turnover of businesses.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Sure.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

From the smaller to mid-size. It's not going to get up there, but we're very proud of hitting a record level retention last year, and we expected that to come down some this year, but as Efrain said, we have a Mendoza line that we're saying, "Hey, this is where we ought to be able to hold it.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Great. One last one. Just on the mid-market, it sounds like you're doing much better there.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yep.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Who are you sensing that you're doing better against? Would it be the big competitor that we all know about? Is it regionals? Is it some of the more recently public companies? Where are you seeing some of the greatest takeaways?

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Yeah. We're seeing it kind of across the board, so I think we're doing very well competitively. We've also still in-house as well, doing well against. It is the major competitor and some of the other that you know so well. I think we're doing very well against them. With the technology enhancements, the software enhancements that we've just mentioned, and the ability to be able to show all of that, I think sometimes people still think of us as a more of a service company, great service company, but not the technology. When we're able to show the technology enhancements that we've introduced in the last few years, we come up against other competitors, and we perform extremely well. As Efrain mentioned, you know we're fully integrated, so we can provide everything on one solution, Flex, right from retirement to insurance to HR and payroll.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

It's not necessarily where you might go to a competitor that says, "Hey, I'm going to pass you to somebody else to do the retirement," or pass you to somebody else to do this. Not to mention over 650 HR specialists who really have been there in the last couple of years. Nobody else has a team like that, in my opinion.

[Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird]

Perfect. Congratulations again.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Thanks, Mark.

[Operator]

We'll take our final question from James Faucette with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

[James Faucette, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Hey, thank you very much, Marty.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

How are you doing, James?

[James Faucette, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

I'm doing well, thanks. Thanks for all the time. Most of my questions have been answered. The one thing I wanted to ask, though, is when we look at kind of the hiring environment, and you've emphasized your own efforts there as well as the struggles of your customers, are there things that Paychex can be doing incrementally to help with the hiring beyond. Clearly, there are a lot of tools that you're already and you've highlighted, but are there things that you can be or should be doing to help your customers even more in the area? Just would love to get your thoughts on that as a strategic opportunity. Thanks.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Absolutely. I think of many of the things that we've talked about have really helped clients. You can go right from a financial perspective, which is the Employee Retention Tax Credits, giving them dollars in their pocket to pay more for existing employees or pay to attract employees. We go right at them to help them with their own financial situation. When you look at from the product standpoint, you have all of these things, benefit plans, retirement plans, HR guidance and support. Many companies, 25, 30 employees still don't really have the great HR support knowledge that they need to be able to, how do I attract? One that I haven't even mentioned today, which is really important, is we've had this partnership with Indeed. We have a very fully integrated partnership with Indeed, which is the world's largest job posting system.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

A client can go out and post on Indeed. They actually get a credit because they're with Paychex, with Indeed for the first couple of postings. They can go out on that job board, post that. If someone applies for that job, they give their demographic information, obviously, in the application. If that's accepted, that comes over with no need to then put that into our system again. It transfers over through API. We also think we've helped them by getting them in front of the biggest job posting system and making it easy for them to post the job through Flex, place it on Indeed, somebody applies, it comes back from Indeed, self-populates, really, if their person is hired into the payroll system and the HR system, and everything's set.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

We've made it easy as much as we can for clients to hire and then retain by giving them the benefits and so forth to keep that employee. We're very proud of the Indeed partnership and what that does. Not only gives them a little financial incentive in some discounts on their postings, but it really makes it easy for them to post. These are companies, even five employees to 50, that still struggle sometimes with where to post for a job.

[James Faucette, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

That's great color. Thank you very much.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Okay. Ashley, if there's no more Efrain does have a statement that he wants to make before we close out.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Are there no more questions?

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time.

[Efrain Rivera, CFO at Paychex]

Okay. Hey, thanks. Final point. To the shareholders on the call, I just wanted to mention that we recently filed supplemental proxy materials relating to our proposal on Say on Pay. Glass Lewis has recommended a for vote on the proposal, and we would appreciate your support. Should you be interested in engaging with us on the issue, please feel free to reach out prior to the shareholder meeting or after. Happy to chat with you about it. With that, I will turn it back to Marty.

[Martin Mucci, President and CEO at Paychex]

Great. At this point, we will close the call. If you're interested in replaying the webcast of this conference call, we'll be archived for approximately 90 days. Thank you for your taking the time to participate in our first quarter press release conference call and for your interest in Paychex. Have a great rest of the week.

[Operator]

Thank you, and this does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

Participants

Executives

• Efrain Rivera, CFO
• Martin Mucci, President and CEO

Analysts

• Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair
• Bryan Bergin, Analyst at Cowen
• Bryan Keane, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• David Togut, Analyst at Evercore ISI
• Eugene Simuni, Analyst at Moffett
• James Faucette, Analyst at Morgan Stanley
• Jeff Silber, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets
• Kartik Mehta, Analyst at Northcoast Research
• Kevin McVeigh, Analyst at Credit Suisse
• Mark Marcon, Analyst at Baird
• Mihir Bhatia, Analyst at Bank of America
• Ramsey El-Assal, Analyst at Barclays
• Samad Samana, Analyst at Jefferies