Earnings results often indicate what direction a company will take in the months ahead. With Q2 behind us, let’s have a look at Bill.com (NYSE: BILL) and its peers.

Organizations are constantly looking to improve organizational efficiencies, whether it is financial planning, tax management or payroll. Finance and HR software benefit from the SaaS-ification of businesses, large and small, who much prefer the flexibility of cloud-based, web-browser delivered software paid for on a subscription basis than the hassle and expense of purchasing and managing on-premise enterprise software.

The 15 finance and HR software stocks we track reported a mixed Q2. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 1.3% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 0.5% below.

Thankfully, share prices of the companies have been resilient as they are up 8.4% on average since the latest earnings results.

Bill.com (NYSE: BILL)

Started by René Lacerte in 2006 after selling his previous payroll and accounting software company PayCycle to Intuit, Bill.com (NYSE: BILL) is a software as a service platform that aims to make payments and billing processes easier for small and medium-sized businesses.

Bill.com reported revenues of $343.7 million, up 16.1% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 4.8%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a mixed quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates but management forecasting growth to slow.

Bill.com scored the biggest analyst estimates beat of the whole group. Unsurprisingly, the stock is up 8.3% since reporting and currently trades at $55.

Is now the time to buy Bill.com? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.

Best Q2: Zuora (NYSE: ZUO)

Founded in 2007, Zuora (NYSE: ZUO) offers software as a service platform that allows companies to bill and accept payments for recurring subscription products.

Zuora reported revenues of $115.4 million, up 6.8% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 2.5%. The business had a very strong quarter with an impressive beat of analysts’ billings estimates and optimistic earnings guidance for the next quarter.

The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 15.9% since reporting. It currently trades at $9.86.

Is now the time to buy Zuora? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.

Weakest Q2: Asure (NASDAQ: ASUR)

Created from the merger of two small workforce management companies in 2007, Asure (NASDAQ: ASUR) provides cloud based payroll and HR software for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Asure reported revenues of $28.04 million, down 7.8% year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 2%. It was a softer quarter as it posted a miss of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a decline in its gross margin.

Asure delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates in the group. As expected, the stock is down 7.6% since the results and currently trades at $9.23.

Read our full analysis of Asure’s results here.

Workiva (NYSE: WK)

Founded in 2010, Workiva (NYSE: WK) offers software as a service product that makes financial and compliance reporting easier, especially for publicly traded corporations.

Workiva reported revenues of $177.5 million, up 14.5% year on year. This number topped analysts’ expectations by 1.3%. It was a strong quarter as it also produced accelerating customer growth and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.

Workiva scored the highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The company added 72 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,768. The stock is up 8.7% since reporting and currently trades at $78.78.

Read our full, actionable report on Workiva here, it’s free.

Paycom (NYSE: PAYC)

Founded in 1998 as one of the first online payroll companies, Paycom (NYSE: PAYC) provides software for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to manage their payroll and HR needs in one place.

Paycom reported revenues of $437.5 million, up 9.1% year on year. This result was in line with analysts’ expectations. Aside from that, it was a mixed quarter as it also logged a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates but a decline in its gross margin.

The stock is down 1.2% since reporting and currently trades at $164.63.

Read our full, actionable report on Paycom here, it’s free.

Market Update

After much suspense, the Federal Reserve cut its policy rate by 50bps (half a percent) in September 2024. This marks the central bank’s first easing of monetary policy since 2020 and the end of its most pointed inflation-busting campaign since the 1980s. Inflation had begun to run hot in 2021 post-COVID due to a confluence of factors such as supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and stimulus spending. While CPI (inflation) readings have been supportive lately, employment measures have prompted some concern. Going forward, the markets will debate whether this rate cut (and more potential ones in 2024 and 2025) is perfect timing to support the economy or a bit too late for a macro that has already cooled too much.

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