ADP stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
July 15th, 2019
4
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. provides business process outsourcing services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO) Services.
Should I buy ADP stock?
Trading stocks requires experience and discipline, and your buying and selling decisions must come following a methodology. Following a trading strategy helps to make decisions easier, quicker and with less hesitations. There are thousands of trading strategies for you to choose, but at Stocks2.com we prefer those that are simple but successful.Currently, Automatic Data Processing stock doesn't match any of these trading strategies, so our recommendation is not to buy.
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | No |
| New 52 week high | No |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Automatic Data Processing stock a buy?
Financial institutions and banks post stock ratings everyday.
At Stocks2.com, we gathered 2 ratings published for ADP stock in the last month.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-5-6 | Barclays | Overweight | Overweight |
| 2019-5-2 | Citigroup | Neutral | Neutral |
ADP stock analysis
Daily outlook
Shares of Automatic Data Processing stayed steady a neutral -0.07% and closed at $165.01.
Automatic Data Processing shares stayed steady -0.07% to $165.01 today. Since March when SMA50d and SMA100d crossed up, ADP price gained $14.00 per share (9.27%). Since last Jul 3rd when ADP stock price broke up the SMA50d line, it gained $3.05 (1.88%). On Jun 21st, ADP hit a new all time high, pushing higher than on June/20 tops. Check different trading setups that use ATHs as triggers.
Weekly outlook
Automatic Data Processing remained constant a neutral -0.07% this week.
Price pattern shows an uptrend with two rising tops and bottoms, and now trading upwards to the $170.45 resistance. Not so far away is the last price record Automatic Data Processing marked by mid June. Since price and SMA40w lines crossed up late January, ADP climbed $29.96 (22.18%). Since SMA10d and SMA20w crossed up late February, ADP price climbed $13.35 per share (8.80%).
ADP stock price history
ADP IPO was on March 17th, 1980 at $0.44 per share1. Since then, ADP stock grew a 37,402.30%, with an average of 959.00% per year. If you had invested right after ADP's IPO a $1,000 in ADP stock in 1980, it would worth $374,023.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
ADP stock historical price chart
ADP stock reached all-time highs on Jun 21st with a price of $170.45.
ADP stock price target is $171.00
How much a stock will be priced tomorrow or next week is quite unpredictable However, financial institutions invest time and resources to provide the most accurated estimations to help investors to make their decisions. The accuracy of these stock price predictions is not very high, and you should not blindly believe and make decisions only based on what this ratings or price target predictions say. For the last month we found 2 price forecasts for ADP stock:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-5-6 | Barclays | Raises Target | $168.00 | $180.00 | 7.1% |
| 2019-5-2 | Citigroup | Raises Target | $147.00 | $162.00 | 10.2% |
| (in average) | $157.50 | $171.00 | 9.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
Since last April, when Automatic Data Processing posted its last earnings report, it stepped up a tiny 1.73%. As soon as we get its actual EPS from the earnings report, we will extend this report.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | 0.59 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | 2017-11-02 | 0.85 | 0.91 | 7.1% |
| 2017-Q4 | 2018-01-31 | 0.9 | 0.99 | 10.0% |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-05-02 | 1.44 | 1.52 | 5.6% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-08-01 | 0.9 | 0.92 | 2.2% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-10-31 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 9.1% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2019-01-30 | 1.18 | 1.34 | 13.6% |
| 2019-Q1 | 2019-04-30 | 1.69 | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
Compared to 2017, last anual turnover report draw an excellent gain of 7.64% to $13,325.80 M dollars. When comparing 2018 vs 2017, by contrast, profit margin (that is, the net income divided by revenues) decreased a -1.84% to 12.16%. Automatic Data Processing fiscal year ends in June, and to evaluate its evolution since then, we estimate annual sales and income figures by adding results from the last 4 quarters. This is called TTM (or Twelve Trailing Months). So, Automatic Data Processing TTM sales up to March 2019 were $13,995.10 and earnings $1,926.00 M dollars. When comparing this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can review Automatic Data Processing business evolution since June 2018: Annual sales up to March, compared to lastest yearly report, soared a decent 5.02%. Similarly, profit margin (net income/revenues) grew at 12.16%.| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $11,310 M | - | $1,360 M12.0% | - |
| 2014 | $12,210 M | 7.96% | $1,500 M12.3% | 10.29% |
| 2015 | $10,939 M | -10.41% | $1,453 M13.3% | -3.17% |
| 2016 | $11,668 M | 6.67% | $1,493 M12.8% | 2.75% |
| 2017 | $12,380 M | 6.10% | $1,733 M14.0% | 16.14% |
| 2018 | $13,326 M | 7.64% | $1,621 M12.2% | -6.50% |
| TTM | $13,995 M | 5.02% | $1,926 M13.8% | 18.83% |
Quarterly financial results
Automatic Data Processing posted $3,847.40 million in sales for 2019-Q1, a 9.74% improvement compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter income marked $753.70 million with a profit margin of 19.59%. Profit margin inched a 3.67% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 15.92%. When comparing sales to same quarter last year, Automatic Data Processing sales marked a nice increase and gained a 4.18%. Looking back to recent quarterly results, Automatic Data Processing posted 3 negative quarters in a row.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $3,060 M | - | $266 M8.7% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $3,079 M | 0.61% | $402 M13.0% | 51.05% |
| 2017-Q4 | $3,235 M | 5.09% | $468 M14.4% | 16.44% |
| 2018-Q1 | $3,693 M | 14.14% | $643 M17.4% | 37.56% |
| 2018-Q2 | $3,319 M | -10.14% | $109 M3.3% | -83.10% |
| 2018-Q3 | $3,323 M | 0.14% | $505 M15.2% | 364.95% |
| 2018-Q4 | $3,506 M | 5.50% | $558 M15.9% | 10.45% |
| 2019-Q1 | $3,847 M | 9.74% | $754 M19.6% | 35.02% |
Automatic Data Processing ownership
When you are planning to invest in shares of a stock, it's always worth to review its ownership structure.Automatic Data Processing shares owned by insiders (that is, founders, CEO, CTO, main executives or other management staff) currently counts a 0.17% of all shares.
Bearish positions for ADP stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
For a better understanding, the next table shows ownership data compared to other related stocks:
| ADP | ACN | ADS | BBSI | EFX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $71.8 B | $121.0 B | $7.8 B | $640.6 M | $16.6 B |
| Total shares | 435.2 M | 616.7 M | 52.4 M | 7.4 M | 120.8 M |
| Float shares | 434.6 M | 635.9 M | 47.2 M | 6.7 M | 120.1 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 81.8% | 72.5% | 97.2% | 81.4% | 88.7% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 0.2% | 0.2% | 2.8% | 4.2% | 0.4% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
ADP summary
| Monday, July 15th, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $165.48 |
| Close | $165.01 |
| Day range | $164.69 - $166.16 |
| Previous close | $165.13 |
| Session gain | -0.07% |
| Average true range | $2.52 |
| 50d mov avg | $162.75 |
| 100d mov avg | $159.64 |
| 200d mov avg | $149.18 |
| Daily pattern | lt03a |
| Weekly pattern | lb02a |
Automatic Data Processing performance
Stocks performance is always measured in comparision to the market or competitors and related stocks in the same industry. In the following table, we compare Automatic Data Processing performance to Accenture, Alliance Data Systems, Barrett Business Services, Equifax, Fidelity National Financial, Intuit, Insperity, Paychex, TriNet and WageWorks:| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADPAutomatic Data Pr... | 2.07% | 23.29% | 22.63% |
| ACNAccenture | 9.84% | 35.29% | 18.77% |
| ADSAlliance Data Sys... | -16.96% | -9.97% | -37.75% |
| BBSIBarrett Business ... | 13.44% | 46.48% | -10.05% |
| EFXEquifax | 9.48% | 32.49% | 9.91% |
| FNFFidelity National... | 8.18% | 24.81% | 16.18% |
| INTUIntuit | 9.80% | 32.58% | 32.30% |
| NSPInsperity | 1.60% | 38.41% | 36.65% |
| PAYXPaychex | 5.87% | 24.54% | 25.48% |
| TNETTriNet | 15.44% | 65.55% | 28.82% |
| WAGEWageWorks | 23.75% | 82.37% | -2.96% |
Automatic Data Processing competitors
One check before investing in any stock is to have a look a list of its competitors, in this case for Automatic Data Processing. We selected 10 companies as Automatic Data Processing competitors as they are in the same industry or have similar market objectives.- Accenture (ACN)
- Alliance Data Systems (ADS)
- Barrett Business Services (BBSI)
- Equifax (EFX)
- Fidelity National Financial (FNF)
- Intuit (INTU)
- Insperity (NSP)
- Paychex (PAYX)
- TriNet (TNET)
- WageWorks (WAGE)
Latest ADP stock news
- Seeking AlphaAutomatic Data Processing: Great Total Return - Up From The Last Report And Fully ValuedMay 29, 2019
- Seeking AlphaAutomatic Data Processing Gets A Catalyst From Revised OutlookFebruary 4, 2019
- Seeking AlphaAutomatic Data Processing: Shares Ready To RallyJanuary 31, 2019