This lagging payroll stock is in comeback mode as it completes bottoming process

ADP is one of the world's largest payroll companies. If a business needs to pay employees, manage benefits, etc., there's a good chance ADP is involved behind the scenes. Interestingly, depending on the data provider, the stock is often classified as either an industrial or a technology/software company. That's understandable, given that its business touches both operational infrastructure and enterprise software. And as we'll see, the stock's recent price action also reflects characteristics of both sectors. Starting with ADP itself, the stock is just beginning to break out from a clear potential inverse head and shoulders pattern. And as is clear, the stock has been steadily recovering since its April low, though it still has a lot of work to do after trending lower from its June 2025 peak way up at 330. So, while many leading stocks already have broken out to new all-time highs, one reason we continue to like ADP is that it appears to be in the early stages of a bottoming process. Given that ADP relies on software at a massive scale as part of its day-to-day operations, we can look to the IGV software ETF as a potential roadmap for what this breakout attempt could eventually resemble. As we know, IGV spent several months bottoming after its well-documented decline before finally gaining traction. Over the last two weeks, that move has accelerated dramatically, with the ETF rallying all the way to our measured-move target near 104, which it reached yesterday. …