ADPAutomatic Data Processing
Is it safe?
Solid, nothing alarming. No accounting flags, quality moderate.
Reported earnings show no manipulation flags Beneish M-score, a forensic model that detects earnings-manipulation patterns (receivables outrunning sales, margins slipping, accrual-heavy profit).
Mixed fundamental signals Piotroski F-score, nine pass/fail tests of year-over-year financial health across profitability, balance sheet and efficiency. 7 to 9 is strong, 0 to 3 weak.
Insiders were net sellers (-$12.3M, 90 days to Oct 22, 2026), selling is often routine.
Rock-solid balance sheet, low leverage. A rule of thumb on leverage, not a credit rating.
Relatively steady, low volatility. Worst drawdown -41% · now at/near its 52-week high.
Unless marked, from SEC EDGAR, as of Jun 30, 2026.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. Altman sits structurally low for utilities and pipelines; Beneish runs high for fast growers, since sales growth alone lifts it; banks and REITs are excluded.
Can ADP take a bad year?
Automatic Data Processing carries $735M of net debt at 0.12× EBITDA: a load its earnings can carry.
Net debt · as at Q4 2026 · under two and a half years of EBITDA, comfortable
- Net debt / EBITDA
- 0.12×
Net debt / EBITDA · 0.16× a year ago · the load is coming down
- Interest cover
- 11.6×
Interest cover · operating profit covers the interest bill several times over
- Annualised volatility
- 24%
Annualised volatility · S&P 500 16% · noticeably more jumpy than the market
Details›
- Total debtQ4 2026
- $4.97B
- Cash and short-term investments
- $4.23B
- Net debt
- $735M
- EBITDA, trailing twelve months
- $5.91B
- Operating profit, trailing twelve months
- $5.32B
- Debt / equity
- 0.82×
- Total debt / EBITDA
- 0.84×
- Annualised volatilitytwo years of daily moves
- 24%
- Worst drawdown on file
- −41%
- Below its 52-week high
- 1.2%
Balance sheet from SEC filings; drawdown and volatility from end-of-day closes; Altman Z from the filed statements.
The balance sheet
What it owes against what it owns, and how close that comes to trouble.
How far can it fall?
How much the price moves, how deep and how long its falls have run, and what each unit of risk has paid.
Software, Application
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