By Rob Curran


Payroll-services company Automatic Data Processing registered strong fiscal second-quarter revenue growth and reiterated growth targets for the year ending in June, boding well for the U.S. jobs market in 2024.

The Roseland, N.J., firm, which provides payroll services to more than one million companies, posted earnings for the quarter ended in December of $878.4 million, or $2.13 a share, up from $813.1 million, or $1.95 a share, a year earlier. One-off accounting items offset one another so that, on an adjusted basis, ADP also logged earnings of $2.13 a share, topping the average analyst target of $2.10 a share, as tallied FactSet.

Fiscal second-quarter revenue rose 6.3% to $4.67 billion, edging out the average analyst target of $4.65 billion, as per FactSet.

"Following another quarter of record bookings and strong retention, we are well-positioned for steady growth over the remainder of the year," Chief Financial Officer Don McGuire said in a statement.

For the fiscal year, ADP reiterated its prior projection for adjusted earnings growth between 10% and 12% from the fiscal 2023 level of $8.23 a share.

ADP reiterated its revenue growth target of between 6% and 7% from $18 billion it reported for the year ended June 30. That translates to a revenue of between $19.08 billion and $19.26 billion.


Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-31-24 0736ET