Paychex Inc. continues to grow

Paychex Inc. reported continued growth and profits Wednesday with the release of fourth quarter results for fiscal year 2015.

Net income increased 11 percent for the fourth quarter of 2015, compared to the same period from the previous fiscal year. Income was $240.8 million in the most recent quarter, compared to $218.1 in the previous period.

"We thought it was a pretty strong quarter. We ended the year on an up note and feel that we're really poised to continue to do well in 2016," said CFO of Paychex, Efrain Rivera.

For the 12 months ending May 31, income was about $1 billion, compared to $942 million for the 12 months ending May 31, 2014. That's a 7 percent increase.

Revenue increased 8 percent to $681.4 million for the fourth quarter and 9 percent, to $2.7 billion, for the fiscal year, compared to the respective periods last year.

In 2016, Paychex is forecasting revenue growth of 7 to 8 percent and income growth of 8 to 9 percent, Rivera said.

Paychex operations generally fall into two service categories — human resources and payroll. The company achieved a milestone of $1 billion of human resource services revenue for fiscal year 2015, an 18 percent increase over 2014.

Human resource services revenue was $272.4 million for the fourth quarter an increase of 16 percent over the previous comparable period.

Payroll service revenue was $409 million for the fourth quarter and $1.7 billion for the fiscal year, reflecting increases of 4 percent, compared to the respective periods last year.

As of May 31, 2015, Paychex had about 590,000 payroll clients, an increase of about 2 percent from a year earlier. Paychex, headquartered in Penfield, has about 13,300 workers, including about 4,500 in the Rochester area.

"Next year we do expect modest growth in our employee base. We have continued to grow and have added hundreds of jobs over the last five or six years," Rivera said.

BLOUDON@DemocratandChronicle.com