Payroll processor Paychex forecasts quarterly revenue growth below estimates, shares fall

(Reuters) -Paychex forecast first-quarter revenue growth below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, anticipated to be hit by sluggish spending by clients on human capital management and payroll services.

Shares of the Rochester, New York-based company fell more than 4% in early trading.

The end of the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) program - a refundable tax credit for certain eligible businesses and tax-exempt organizations - and one less processing day in the quarter is expected to impact Paychex's first-quarter revenue by about 400 basis points.

"The only thing that surprised us about the end of ERTC was that it happened probably a quarter earlier than what we expected," CFO Bob Schrader said on a post-earnings call.

The company, which has more than 745,000 clients as of May 31, offers HR outsourcing, human capital management technology, payroll processing, retirement and insurance solutions to small- and mid-sized businesses.

Paychex forecast first-quarter revenue growth to be about 2%, compared with analysts' average estimates of 4.4%, according to LSEG data.

It forecast fiscal year 2025 revenue growth of between 4% and 5.5%, compared with average estimates of 4.6%.

The company expects annual adjusted profit per share growth to be between 5% and 7%, the mid-point of which is above analysts' average estimates of 5.5%.

Paychex's revenue grew 5% from a year earlier to $1.30 billion for the fourth quarter ended May 31, coming in line with the average estimates. Its quarterly profit per share came in at $1.05, compared with 97 cents per share a year ago.

The company said the lower contribution from ERTC has impacted total revenue in the fourth quarter by about 300 basis points.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)