Quarterly earnings results are a good time to check in on a company’s progress, especially compared to its peers in the same sector. Today we are looking at Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) and the best and worst performers in the finance and HR software industry.

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 14 finance and HR software stocks we track reported a mixed Q3. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 1.4% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 1% below.

Luckily, finance and HR software stocks have performed well with share prices up 11.4% on average since the latest earnings results.

Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ)

Founded by CEO Jason Gardner in 2009, Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) is an innovative card issuer that provides companies with the ability to issue and process virtual, physical, and tokenized credit and debit cards.

Marqeta reported revenues of $128 million, up 17.5% year on year. This print was in line with analysts’ expectations, but overall, it was a mixed quarter for the company with a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates but revenue guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations significantly.

"In the third quarter our true growth trajectory was back on display as we lapped the Block contract renewal, while continuing to demonstrate operational discipline to fuel strong Adjusted EBITDA. We combined this with several new product announcements that further enhance the Marqeta platform to provide transformative payment solutions at scale for our expanding customer base,” said Simon Khalaf, CEO at Marqeta.

Unsurprisingly, the stock is down 30.7% since reporting and currently trades at $4.14.

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

Best Q3: 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 $358.5 million, up 17.5% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 3.3%. The business had a very strong quarter with EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations and a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.

The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 38.8% since reporting. It currently trades at $91.36.

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

Weakest Q3: 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 $29.3 million, flat year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 6.5%. It was a disappointing quarter as it posted revenue guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations.

Asure delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates, slowest revenue growth, and weakest full-year guidance update in the group. As expected, the stock is down 3.9% since the results and currently trades at $9.54.

Read our full analysis of Asure’s results here.

Flywire (NASDAQ: FLYW)

Originally created to process international tuition payments for universities, Flywire (NASDAQ: FLYW) is a cross border payments processor and software platform focusing on complex, high-value transactions like education, healthcare and B2B payments.

Flywire reported revenues of $156.8 million, up 27.2% year on year. This print topped analysts’ expectations by 7.1%. It was a very strong quarter as it also produced full-year EBITDA guidance exceeding analysts’ expectations.

Flywire delivered the biggest analyst estimates beat, fastest revenue growth, and highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The stock is up 13.9% since reporting and currently trades at $20.83.

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

Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX)

One of the oldest service providers in the industry, Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX) offers its customers payroll and HR software solutions.

Paychex reported revenues of $1.32 billion, up 2.5% year on year. This number met analysts’ expectations. It was a satisfactory quarter as it also put up a decent beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.

The stock is up 6% since reporting and currently trades at $142.18.

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

Market Update

As a result of the Fed's rate hikes in 2022 and 2023, inflation has come down from frothy levels post-pandemic. The general rise in the price of goods and services is trending towards the Fed's 2% goal as of late, which is good news. The higher rates that fought inflation also didn't slow economic activity enough to catalyze a recession. So far, soft landing. This, combined with recent rate cuts (half a percent in September 2024 and a quarter percent in November 2024) have led to strong stock market performance in 2024. The icing on the cake for 2024 returns was Donald Trump's victory in the US Presidential Election in early November, sending major indices to all-time highs in the week following the election. Still, debates around the health of the economy and the impact of potential tariffs and corporate tax cuts remain. Said differently, there's still much uncertainty around 2025.

Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Top 5 Quality Compounder Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.

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