Paychex (PAYX)

TotalReturn:

'Total return, when measuring performance, is the actual rate of return of an investment or a pool of investments over a given evaluation period. Total return includes interest, capital gains, dividends and distributions realized over a given period of time. Total return accounts for two categories of return: income including interest paid by fixed-income investments, distributions or dividends and capital appreciation, representing the change in the market price of an asset.'

• Looking at the total return, or increase in value of 106.3% in the last 5 years of Paychex, we see it is relatively greater, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (67.1%)
• Looking at total return in of 61.1% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively higher, thus better in comparison to SPY (51.3%).

CAGR:

'Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a business and investing specific term for the geometric progression ratio that provides a constant rate of return over the time period. CAGR is not an accounting term, but it is often used to describe some element of the business, for example revenue, units delivered, registered users, etc. CAGR dampens the effect of volatility of periodic returns that can render arithmetic means irrelevant. It is particularly useful to compare growth rates from various data sets of common domain such as revenue growth of companies in the same industry.'

• The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over 5 years of Paychex is 15.6%, which is larger, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (10.8%) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (14.8%) in the period of the last 3 years, the annual performance (CAGR) of 17.3% is higher, thus better.

Volatility:

'Volatility is a statistical measure of the dispersion of returns for a given security or market index. Volatility can either be measured by using the standard deviation or variance between returns from that same security or market index. Commonly, the higher the volatility, the riskier the security. In the securities markets, volatility is often associated with big swings in either direction. For example, when the stock market rises and falls more than one percent over a sustained period of time, it is called a 'volatile' market.'

• Looking at the historical 30 days volatility of 17.4% in the last 5 years of Paychex, we see it is relatively greater, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (13.5%)
• Looking at volatility in of 17.2% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to SPY (12.8%).

DownVol:

'Risk measures typically quantify the downside risk, whereas the standard deviation (an example of a deviation risk measure) measures both the upside and downside risk. Specifically, downside risk in our definition is the semi-deviation, that is the standard deviation of all negative returns.'

• The downside volatility over 5 years of Paychex is 18.9%, which is higher, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (14.8%) in the same period.
• Looking at downside deviation in of 19.3% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively higher, thus worse in comparison to SPY (14.7%).

Sharpe:

'The Sharpe ratio (also known as the Sharpe index, the Sharpe measure, and the reward-to-variability ratio) is a way to examine the performance of an investment by adjusting for its risk. The ratio measures the excess return (or risk premium) per unit of deviation in an investment asset or a trading strategy, typically referred to as risk, named after William F. Sharpe.'

• Looking at the ratio of return and volatility (Sharpe) of 0.75 in the last 5 years of Paychex, we see it is relatively greater, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.62)
• Looking at Sharpe Ratio in of 0.86 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to SPY (0.96).

Sortino:

'The Sortino ratio measures the risk-adjusted return of an investment asset, portfolio, or strategy. It is a modification of the Sharpe ratio but penalizes only those returns falling below a user-specified target or required rate of return, while the Sharpe ratio penalizes both upside and downside volatility equally. Though both ratios measure an investment's risk-adjusted return, they do so in significantly different ways that will frequently lead to differing conclusions as to the true nature of the investment's return-generating efficiency. The Sortino ratio is used as a way to compare the risk-adjusted performance of programs with differing risk and return profiles. In general, risk-adjusted returns seek to normalize the risk across programs and then see which has the higher return unit per risk.'

• The excess return divided by the downside deviation over 5 years of Paychex is 0.69, which is greater, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (0.56) in the same period.
• Looking at excess return divided by the downside deviation in of 0.77 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to SPY (0.84).

Ulcer:

'The ulcer index is a stock market risk measure or technical analysis indicator devised by Peter Martin in 1987, and published by him and Byron McCann in their 1989 book The Investors Guide to Fidelity Funds. It's designed as a measure of volatility, but only volatility in the downward direction, i.e. the amount of drawdown or retracement occurring over a period. Other volatility measures like standard deviation treat up and down movement equally, but a trader doesn't mind upward movement, it's the downside that causes stress and stomach ulcers that the index's name suggests.'

• Looking at the Downside risk index of 5.71 in the last 5 years of Paychex, we see it is relatively higher, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (3.99 )
• Compared with SPY (4.1 ) in the period of the last 3 years, the Downside risk index of 5.8 is larger, thus worse.

MaxDD:

'A maximum drawdown is the maximum loss from a peak to a trough of a portfolio, before a new peak is attained. Maximum Drawdown is an indicator of downside risk over a specified time period. It can be used both as a stand-alone measure or as an input into other metrics such as 'Return over Maximum Drawdown' and the Calmar Ratio. Maximum Drawdown is expressed in percentage terms.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (-19.3 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum drop from peak to valley of -17.4 days of Paychex is higher, thus better.
• Compared with SPY (-19.3 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum DrawDown of -17.4 days is greater, thus better.

MaxDuration:

'The Maximum Drawdown Duration is an extension of the Maximum Drawdown. However, this metric does not explain the drawdown in dollars or percentages, rather in days, weeks, or months. It is the length of time the account was in the Max Drawdown. A Max Drawdown measures a retrenchment from when an equity curve reaches a new high. It’s the maximum an account lost during that retrenchment. This method is applied because a valley can’t be measured until a new high occurs. Once the new high is reached, the percentage change from the old high to the bottom of the largest trough is recorded.'

• Looking at the maximum days below previous high of 149 days in the last 5 years of Paychex, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (187 days)
• Looking at maximum days below previous high in of 139 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to SPY (139 days).

AveDuration:

'The Drawdown Duration is the length of any peak to peak period, or the time between new equity highs. The Avg Drawdown Duration is the average amount of time an investment has seen between peaks (equity highs), or in other terms the average of time under water of all drawdowns. So in contrast to the Maximum duration it does not measure only one drawdown event but calculates the average of all.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (42 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average time in days below previous high water mark of 43 days of Paychex is higher, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (36 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the average days under water of 44 days is higher, thus worse.