As the Q4 earnings season comes to a close, it’s time to take stock of this quarter's best and worst performers in the finance and HR software industry, including 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 slower Q4; on average, revenues beat analyst consensus estimates by 2.4%. while next quarter's revenue guidance was 1% below consensus. Stocks, especially growth stocks where cash flows further in the future are more important to the story, had a good end of 2023. The beginning of 2024 saw mixed inflation data, however, leading to more volatile stock performance, and finance and HR software stocks have had a rough stretch, with share prices down 11.7% on average since the previous 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 $318.5 million, up 22.5% year on year, topping analyst expectations by 6.8%. It was a very strong quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts' billings estimates and a solid beat of analysts' revenue estimates.

“We delivered strong growth during the quarter as we automated financial operations for more than 470,000 businesses,” said René Lacerte, BILL CEO and Founder.

The stock is down 21.6% since the results and currently trades at $59.41.

We think Bill.com is a good business, but is it a buy today? Read our full report here, it's free.

Best Q4: 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 $118.8 million, down 41.7% year on year, outperforming analyst expectations by 7.7%. It was a very good quarter for the company, with a significant improvement in its gross margin and an impressive beat of analysts' revenue estimates.

Marqeta had the slowest revenue growth among its peers. The stock is down 29.6% since the results and currently trades at $5.17.

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

Weakest Q4: 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 $1.44 billion, up 4.2% year on year, falling short of analyst expectations by 1.2%. It was a weak quarter for the company, with a miss of analysts' revenue estimates.

Paychex had the weakest performance against analyst estimates in the group. The stock is down 1.8% since the results and currently trades at $119.42.

Read our full analysis of Paychex'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 $166.7 million, up 15.9% year on year, surpassing analyst expectations by 1.5%. It was a weak  quarter for the company, with full-year revenue guidance missing analysts' expectations. In addition, its net revenue retention decreased.

The company added 70 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,631. The stock is down 17.2% since the results and currently trades at $77.86.

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

Dayforce (NYSE:DAY)

Founded in 1992 as Ceridian, an outsourced payroll processor and transformed after the 2012 acquisition of Dayforce, Dayforce (NYSE:DAY) is a provider of cloud based payroll and HR software targeted at mid-sized businesses.

Dayforce reported revenues of $399.7 million, up 18.9% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a weak quarter for the company, with management forecasting growth to slow and full-year revenue guidance missing analysts' expectations.

The company added 47,000 customers to reach a total of 6.39 million. The stock is down 20% since the results and currently trades at $57.

Read our full, actionable report on Dayforce here, it's free.

Join Paid Stock Investor Research

Help us make StockStory more helpful to investors like yourself. Join our paid user research session and receive a $50 Amazon gift card for your opinions. Sign up here.