PCTY vs GPN vs ZM Stock Comparison

Paylocity Holding, Global Payments and Zoom Communications Prices as of Nov 2, 2026 Peers: Industry group
PCTY Paylocity Holding Corp
$174.09 +20.5% 1M +23.2% 1Y
Market cap
$9.28B
P/E
34.4x
Revenue (TTM)
$1.77B
Div. yield
–
HR Software Technology
2 wins
GPN Global Payments Inc
$99.62 +27.1% 1M +28.1% 1Y
Market cap
$26.58B
P/E
–
Revenue (TTM)
$10.23B
Div. yield
0.01%
Payment Processing Technology
5 wins
ZM Zoom Communications, Inc.
$91.98 -1.0% 1M +5.4% 1Y
Market cap
$26.91B
P/E
8.4x
Revenue (TTM)
$4.97B
Div. yield
–
Communications Platforms Technology
4 wins

Head to Head

11 decided of 12

Global Payments leads on 5 of the 12 questions below (Global Payments 5, Zoom Communications 4, Paylocity Holding 2). Which ones matter depends on what you are buying for; a cheap multiple and slow growth often come together.

QuestionPCTYGPNZMLeader
Larger companyMarket capitalisation $9.28B $26.58B $26.91B ZM
Cheaper on earningsLower P/E, profitable companies only 34.4x -28.5x 8.4x ZM
Cheaper on forward earningsLower price / next fiscal year consensus EPS 21.1x 7.8x 14.3x GPN
Faster revenue growthRevenue growth, trailing twelve months +11.0% +32.5% +4.6% GPN
More profitableNet margin, trailing twelve months 15.2% -9.1% 64.1% ZM
Better return on capitalReturn on invested capital 21.0% 2.3% — PCTY
Less leveragedLower net debt / EBITDA -0.4x 4.8x — PCTY
Higher dividend yieldTrailing dividend yield 0.00% 0.01% 0.00% –
Better 1-year returnPrice return, last 12 months +23.2% +28.1% +5.4% GPN
Better 5-year returnAnnualised price return, 5 years -10.3%/yr -5.9%/yr -20.3%/yr GPN
Less volatileAnnualised volatility, 1 year 42.0% 41.9% 45.0% GPN
Higher overall scoreMean of the five percentile scores vs peers 65/100 49/100 80/100 ZM

Percentile Scorecard

PCTYGPNZM

Each axis is the mean percentile of its metrics against the company's industry group. 100 is the best in the group, 50 the middle.

Scores by Axis

AxisPCTYGPNZM
Valuation 55 #46 of 101 72 #28 of 99 71 #9 of 29
Growth 69 #31 of 97 26 #70 of 94 69 #9 of 27
Profitability 85 #15 of 93 63 #34 of 90 84 #5 of 26
Financial Health 56 #48 of 108 24 #80 of 105 97 #2 of 31
Shareholder Returns 58 #27 of 63 61 #24 of 60 –
Overall 65 49 80
  • PCTY ranked among 114 companies in Business Applications
  • GPN ranked among 109 companies in Fintech
  • ZM ranked among 32 companies in Workplace Software

Price Performance

Price return, split-adjusted, before dividends. Click a name to hide or show it.

Returns

PeriodPCTYGPNZMSPY
1 month +20.5%+27.1%-1.0% -2.3%
3 months +24.6%+15.6%-6.4% -0.7%
6 months +59.7%+38.7%-13.7% +4.8%
Year to date +14.2%+28.7%+6.6% +10.3%
1 year +23.2%+28.1%+5.4% +10.3%
3 years +19.8%-12.4%+46.0% +73.0%
3 years, per year +6.2%-4.3%+13.5% +20.1%
5 years -41.8%-26.1%-67.8% +61.9%
5 years, per year -10.3%-5.9%-20.3% +10.1%
10 years +325.2%+41.0%— +258.6%
10 years, per year +15.6%+3.5%— +13.6%

Risk

MeasurePCTYGPNZMSPY
Volatility, 1Y 42.0%41.9%45.0% 12.8%
Downside volatility, 1Y 41.2%35.9%42.9% 12.8%
Beta vs S&P 500, 1Y -0.170.841.07 1.00
Return / volatility, 1Y 0.550.670.12 0.80
Max drawdown, 5Y -68.2%-58.8%-80.6% -25.4%
From 52-week high -2.0%0.0%-17.8% -3.5%
52-week high $177.67$99.62$111.88 $779.14
52-week low $95.10$62.47$72.72 $631.97

Valuation History

Weekly multiples on trailing twelve-month fundamentals. Negative or extreme readings (a loss year, a collapsed denominator) are left out so the chart stays readable.

MultiplePCTYGPNZM
P/E now vs peer median 33.8xmedian 28.0x -24.8xmedian 19.5x 9.0xmedian 33.1x
P/S now vs peer median 5.1xmedian 2.8x 2.2xmedian 2.2x 5.7xmedian 2.5x
EV/EBITDA now vs peer median 17.6xmedian 16.9x 10.9xmedian 17.8x 13.9xmedian 9.8x
P/FCF now vs peer median 18.0xmedian 15.9x 27.7xmedian 16.1x —median 15.2x
P/B now vs peer median 7.3xmedian 3.2x 1.0xmedian 2.0x 2.5xmedian 3.1x
PEG now vs peer median 1.32median 0.89 0.54median 0.98 0.05median 0.74

Financial History

Reported figures by fiscal period, placed on the calendar year (or quarter) each period ended in, so companies with different fiscal years line up.

Trailing twelve monthsPCTYGPNZM
Revenue $1.77B $10.23B $4.97B
Gross profit $1.23B $6.54B $3.84B
Operating income $385.99M $1.27B $1.20B
Net income $269.74M -$873.78M $3.19B
Free cash flow $497.10M $822.72M –
R&D $221.39M – $881.96M
EPS (diluted) $4.92 $-3.46 $10.64
Cash & equivalents $271.92M $5.41B $931.99M
Total debt $81.25M $23.56B –
Shares (diluted) 54.77M 270.12M 299.75M
Enterprise value $8.38B $4.37B -$3.88B

All Metrics

58 metrics · best in bold

Bold marks the best reading: the lowest positive value for multiples, leverage and payout, the highest for everything else. The bar under each value is its percentile against that company's own peers. Hover a value for its rank and the peer median.

Valuation

12 metrics
MetricPCTYGPNZM
P/E 33.8x -24.8x 9.0x
P/FCF 18.0x 27.7x –
P/Operating cash flow 16.8x 13.7x –
P/S 5.1x 2.2x 5.7x
P/B 7.3x 1.0x 2.5x
P/Tangible book 7.9x 5.2x 2.5x
EV/EBITDA 17.6x 10.9x 13.9x
EV/EBIT 22.7x 32.3x 17.8x
EV/Revenue 5.0x 4.0x 4.3x
EV/FCF 17.7x 49.7x –
EV/Operating cash flow 16.5x 24.7x –
PEG (3Y EPS CAGR) 1.32 0.54 0.05

Growth

14 metrics
MetricPCTYGPNZM
Revenue growth (1Y) 11.0% 32.5% 4.6%
Revenue CAGR (3Y) 14.7% 3.3% 3.7%
Gross profit growth (1Y) 11.7% 14.8% 5.7%
Gross profit CAGR (3Y) 14.9% 5.7% 4.5%
Operating income growth (1Y) 27.0% -33.4% 23.2%
Operating income CAGR (3Y) 35.5% -4.4% 112.9%
Net income growth (1Y) 18.8% -158.6% 168.3%
Net income CAGR (3Y) 24.2% -44.6% 182.3%
EPS growth (1Y) 22.6% -158.9% 175.9%
EPS CAGR (3Y) 25.6% -46.2% 184.2%
Operating cash flow growth (1Y) 27.5% -46.4% –
Operating cash flow CAGR (3Y) 23.6% -9.1% –
Free cash flow growth (1Y) 22.7% -66.6% –
Free cash flow CAGR (3Y) 24.0% -19.7% –

Profitability

14 metrics
MetricPCTYGPNZM
Gross margin 69.2% 63.9% 77.2%
EBITDA margin 28.1% 36.8% 30.9%
Operating margin 21.8% 12.4% 24.1%
Pretax margin 21.9% 5.5% 82.5%
Net margin 15.2% -9.1% 64.1%
FCF margin 28.1% 8.0% –
Operating cash flow margin 30.1% 16.2% –
Return on equity 22.5% -3.5% 30.2%
Return on assets 5.2% -1.3% 25.0%
Return on invested capital 21.0% 2.3% –
Return on capital employed 22.1% 2.5% 11.2%
Asset turnover 0.3x 0.2x 0.4x
Cash conversion (OCF / net income) 2.0x -1.9x –
Stock comp / revenue 7.8% 1.3% –

Financial Health

11 metrics
MetricPCTYGPNZM
Debt / assets 1.7% 37.1% –
Debt / equity 0.1x 1.0x –
Net debt / EBITDA -0.4x 4.8x –
Debt / FCF 0.2x 28.6x –
Liabilities / assets 75.0% 62.6% 16.8%
Equity / assets 25.0% 37.4% 83.2%
Interest coverage – 1.5x –
Current ratio 1.1x 0.8x 3.8x
Quick ratio 0.1x 0.7x 3.7x
Cash ratio 0.1x 0.4x 3.4x
Altman Z-score 2.50 0.61 9.48

Shareholder Returns

7 metrics
MetricPCTYGPNZM
Dividend yield – 1.2% –
Net buyback yield 4.3% 6.9% –
Shareholder yield 4.3% 8.1% –
Payout ratio (earnings) – -28.8% –
Payout ratio (FCF) – 30.6% –
Dividend growth (1Y) – 1.8% –
Dividend CAGR (3Y) – -1.7% –

Analyst Estimates

Solid lines are reported fiscal-year results; dashed lines are the consensus for the years ahead. Hover a year for the analysts' high and low, and how each result compared with its estimate.

ConsensusPCTYGPNZM
Forward P/E 21.1xFY2027 7.8xFY2026 14.3xFY2026
EPS, next fiscal year $8.25FY2027 $12.82FY2026 $6.45FY2026
EPS growth, next FY -0.7%FY2027 +4.9%FY2026 +9.0%FY2026
EPS growth, the year after +13.7% +18.0% +2.8%
Revenue, next fiscal year $1.94BFY2027 $12.66BFY2026 $4.76BFY2026
Revenue growth, next FY +9.6%FY2027 +35.9%FY2026 -2.4%FY2026
Revenue growth, the year after -1.6% +8.4% +8.0%

Institutional Ownership

13F filings, quarter ended Jun 30, 2026
HoldersPCTYGPNZM
Held by institutions 85.4% 100.0% 67.2%
Institutions holding 467 793 863
Change in shares held, QoQ +2.3% +7.4% +2.9%
Institutions buying 273 374 478
Institutions selling 155 308 279
Buyers to sellers 1.76 1.21 1.71

Return Correlation

Daily returns, last 12 months

1.00 means two stocks move in lockstep, 0 that they move independently. Pairs below about 0.5 diversify each other.

PCTYGPNZM
PCTY 1.00 0.43 0.35
GPN 0.43 1.00 0.26
ZM 0.35 0.26 1.00

Add a Peer

Largest companies in the same industry

Related Comparisons

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is bigger, PCTY, GPN and ZM?

Zoom Communications (ZM) is the largest by market capitalisation: Paylocity Holding (PCTY) $9.28B, Global Payments (GPN) $26.58B, Zoom Communications (ZM) $26.91B.

Which stock is cheaper, PCTY, GPN and ZM?

Zoom Communications (ZM) trades on the lowest price-to-earnings ratio (Paylocity Holding (PCTY) 34.4x, Global Payments (GPN) -28.5x, Zoom Communications (ZM) 8.4x). On next year's consensus earnings, Global Payments (GPN) is cheapest (Paylocity Holding (PCTY) 21.1x, Global Payments (GPN) 7.8x, Zoom Communications (ZM) 14.3x). A lower multiple can reflect slower expected growth, so read it next to the growth figures.

Which company is growing faster?

Global Payments (GPN) grew revenue fastest over the trailing twelve months: Paylocity Holding (PCTY) +11.0%, Global Payments (GPN) +32.5%, Zoom Communications (ZM) +4.6%.

Which company is more profitable?

Zoom Communications (ZM) has the highest net margin (Paylocity Holding (PCTY) 15.2%, Global Payments (GPN) -9.1%, Zoom Communications (ZM) 64.1%). On return on invested capital, Paylocity Holding (PCTY) leads (Paylocity Holding (PCTY) 21.0%, Global Payments (GPN) 2.3%).

Which stock has performed better?

Over the past year Global Payments (GPN) returned the most: Paylocity Holding (PCTY) +23.2%, Global Payments (GPN) +28.1%, Zoom Communications (ZM) +5.4%. Over five years, Global Payments (GPN) compounded fastest (Paylocity Holding (PCTY) -10.3%/yr, Global Payments (GPN) -5.9%/yr, Zoom Communications (ZM) -20.3%/yr). Returns are price only, before dividends.

Which pays a higher dividend?

Only one of these companies pays a dividend: Paylocity Holding (PCTY) 0.00%, Global Payments (GPN) 0.01%, Zoom Communications (ZM) 0.00%. Paylocity Holding (PCTY) and Zoom Communications (ZM) pays no regular dividend.

Which stock is riskier?

By one-year price volatility, Global Payments (GPN) has been the steadiest (Paylocity Holding (PCTY) 42.0%, Global Payments (GPN) 41.9%, Zoom Communications (ZM) 45.0%). Volatility measures how widely the price swings, not the risk of the business.

Which is the better stock, PCTY, GPN and ZM?

There is no single answer; it depends on what you are buying for. On the 12 head-to-head measures on this page, Global Payments (GPN) leads on 5. Business Quant does not give investment advice; use the comparison as a starting point for your own research.

Data from SEC filings, exchange prices and consensus estimates, via Business Quant. Percentile scores compare each company with its own peer group, so two companies' scores are each relative to different peers unless you rank against the whole market. Price returns exclude dividends. Nothing on this page is investment advice.