Paychex (PAYX) Gross Margin (2019 - 2026)
Paychex (PAYX) reported Gross Margin of 73.62% for fiscal Q1 2027 (quarter ended Aug 31, 2026), up 0.49 percentage points from 73.13% a year earlier but down 0.39 percentage points from the prior quarter.
Paychex (PAYX) Gross Margin (2019 - 2026) Analysis & Trends
Over the twelve months ended Aug 31, 2026, Paychex's Gross Margin came in at 74.39%, up 1.56 percentage points year-over-year; for FY2026 (ended May 31, 2026), it was 74.29%, up 1.93 percentage points from FY2025.
- Gross Margin has increased for six consecutive fiscal years, with a five-year change of +5.62 percentage points (FY2021 to FY2026).
- By fiscal year, Gross Margin came in at 72.35% in FY2025 (+0.38 pp), 71.97% in FY2024 (+0.99 pp), 70.98% in FY2023 (+0.39 pp) and 70.59% in FY2022 (+1.93 pp).
- Five-year quarterly Gross Margin spans a low of 68.54% in fiscal Q4 2022 and a high of 76.16% in fiscal Q3 2026.
- Year over year, Gross Margin has now increased in each of the last eight quarters, with an average year-over-year change of +1.31 percentage points over the last eight quarters.
- The high point for year-over-year Gross Margin in five years was fiscal Q2 2022 (a gain of 2.61 percentage points); the low point was fiscal Q1 2025 (a drop of 0.81 percentage points).
- Per Business Quant data, the three fiscal quarters before Q1 2027 came in at 74.01% (Q4 2026), 76.16% (Q3 2026) and 73.54% (Q2 2026).
Peer Comparison
| # | Company | Market Cap | Enterprise Value | Gross Profit (Qtr) | Gross Margin (Qtr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Palantir Technologies | 373.01 Bn | 337.83 Bn | 1.93 Bn | 83.43% |
| 2 | Oracle | 343.83 Bn | 215.96 Bn | - | - |
| 3 | Sap Se | 284.17 Bn | 211.56 Bn | 8.64 Bn | 73.13% |
| 4 | Salesforce | 182.25 Bn | 138.13 Bn | 8.70 Bn | 76.65% |
| 5 | Automatic Data Processing | 123.04 Bn | 109.84 Bn | 2.53 Bn | 46.00% |
| 6 | ServiceNow | 105.90 Bn | 85.16 Bn | 2.90 Bn | 70.51% |
| 7 | Intuit | 97.51 Bn | 76.85 Bn | 3.44 Bn | 79.10% |
| 8 | Relx | 75.90 Bn | 74.99 Bn | - | - |
| 9 | Thomson Reuters | 52.87 Bn | 48.84 Bn | - | - |
| 10 | Paychex | 42.46 Bn | 37.54 Bn | 1.20 Bn | 73.62% |
Historic Data
| Date | Value |
|---|---|
| Aug 31, 2026 | 73.62% |
| May 31, 2026 | 74.01% |
| Feb 28, 2026 | 76.16% |
| Nov 30, 2025 | 73.54% |
| Aug 31, 2025 | 73.13% |
| May 31, 2025 | 72.40% |
| Feb 28, 2025 | 74.33% |
| Nov 30, 2024 | 71.21% |
| Aug 31, 2024 | 71.18% |
| May 31, 2024 | 71.03% |
| Feb 29, 2024 | 73.61% |
| Nov 30, 2023 | 71.05% |
| Aug 31, 2023 | 71.99% |
| May 31, 2023 | 69.93% |
| Feb 28, 2023 | 73.00% |
| Nov 30, 2022 | 69.81% |
| Aug 31, 2022 | 70.90% |
| May 31, 2022 | 68.54% |
| Feb 28, 2022 | 72.40% |
| Nov 30, 2021 | 70.09% |
Paychex Gross Margin API
Pull this series into your own models, spreadsheets and apps with the Business Quant
Historical Metrics API. The request below matches the chart above — change the
frequency, period or values and it follows. Swap YOUR_API_KEY for your own key.
https://data.businessquant.com/historic?slug=gross-margin&ticker=PAYX&period=max&api_key=YOUR_API_KEYimport requests
url = "https://data.businessquant.com/historic"
params = {"slug": "gross-margin", "ticker": "PAYX", "period": "max", "api_key": "YOUR_API_KEY"}
data = requests.get(url, params=params).json()const res = await fetch("https://data.businessquant.com/historic?slug=gross-margin&ticker=PAYX&period=max&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY");
const data = await res.json();