JP Morgan Upgrades Paychex to Neutral from Underweight
Fintel reports that on September 24, 2026, JP Morgan upgraded their outlook for Paychex (NASDAQGS:PAYX) (BIT:1PAYX) from Underweight to Neutral.
Paychex Inc. is a leading provider of human resources, payroll, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. The company offers a wide range of services, including payroll processing, tax administration, time and attendance tracking, human resource management, and employee benefits administration. Prior to this upgrade, JP Morgan maintained its Underweight rating on June 25, 2026.
On the same day as the upgrade, September 24, 2026, three other analyst firms maintained their ratings. Stifel maintained its Hold rating, BMO Capital maintained its Market Perform rating, and UBS maintained its Neutral rating. Looking at other recent actions, Wolfe Research upgraded Paychex from Underperform to Peer Perform on September 16, 2026. TD Cowen maintained its Hold rating on September 11, 2026, and Wells Fargo maintained its Underweight rating on September 9, 2026.
Paychex reported its latest earnings on September 23, 2026. The company reported an actual EPS of 1.34, compared to the estimated EPS of 1.3465, which is an earnings surprise of -0.48%. Actual revenue was $1,630,500,000.00, compared to the estimated revenue of $1,659,391,284.00. On September 24, 2026, the latest close for Paychex was $101.56, while the pre-action close was $104.49 on September 23, 2026. The stock has experienced a one-week price change of -12.83% from a baseline close of $116.51 on September 17, 2026, and a one-month price change of -19.40% from a baseline close of $126.01 on August 24, 2026.
Separately, as of September 16, 2026, the current consensus target mean for Paychex was $121.17, with a median of $119.34, representing an implied change of +19.31%. This is a revision of +6.04% from the prior consensus target mean of $114.26 on August 28, 2026. For the recommendation period of September 1, 2026, the aggregate recommendations included 2 strong buy, 0 buy, 15 hold, 4 sell, and 3 strong sell ratings. This total of 24 recommendations represents 8.3% positive, 62.5% hold, and 29.2% negative, which is identical to the prior recommendation period of August 1, 2026.
Recent analyst actions
| Date | Analyst | Prior | Latest recommendation | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 24, 2026 | JP Morgan | Underweight | Neutral | upgrade |
| September 24, 2026 | BMO Capital | Market Perform | Market Perform | maintained |
| September 24, 2026 | UBS | Neutral | Neutral | maintained |
| September 24, 2026 | Stifel | Hold | Hold | maintained |
| September 16, 2026 | Wolfe Research | Underperform | Peer Perform | upgrade |
| September 11, 2026 | TD Cowen | Hold | Hold | maintained |
| September 9, 2026 | Wells Fargo | Underweight | Underweight | maintained |
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This story originally appeared on Fintel.