Automatic Data Processing, based in Roseland, New Jersey, is a leading cloud-based business services company. The firm is focused on human capital management and has two primary segments: Employer Services, which provides payroll services to companies, and Professional Employer Organization Services, which provides employment administration outsourcing services, including HR, benefits management, and retirement and compliance programs. The shares are a component of the S&P 500. The company has approximately 64,000 employees.

Stocks are broadly lower at midday. At the very least, it seems some price-gain exhaustion may have set in after the solid progress last week. That said, earnings reports are flowing in and some companies are indeed pulling their forecasts and/or quantifying the impact of tariffs on their businesses.

Nimble, smart, and staying ahead. Argus has identified six companies that we believe should be added to our Innovation theme model portfolio. These are companies we know well (which we like) and that continue to perform well and demonstrate financial stability and success. Over and over again, they nurture their innovative mindset, responding to market needs and trends, remaining nimble, and adapting to stay ahead. Our team of analysts regularly review and analyze growth trends, business models, and management strategies, and we have 30 stocks in this portfolio. We break the theme into four categories of innovation: First to Market; New Product Specialists; Product and Process Perfectors; and Industry Disruptors. We enjoy throwing ourselves into this theme as we continue to learn about new technologies and discoveries. Below are the six companies recently added to our portfolio. All are rated BUY at Argus. To see the complete list of companies in the portfolio, please see the Theme Portfolios section of the Argus website. Note that these model strategies can be licensed for direct money management.

The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles to a large degree - have moved overseas, where labor and materials costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy, even during the pandemic and the recent period of high inflation, has expanded to record levels. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, creating new products (such as AI and vaccines) and services (such as Zoom calls and Netflix), as well as moving into new markets (clean energy, rare drugs), the domestic economy would not be growing, and capital would not be flooding into the country. Consider that U.S. GDP was approximately $1 trillion in 1930 but was almost $30 trillion at the end of 2024. That's growth of 30-times. Meanwhile, the U.S. population has grown less than 3-times during that time span, to 340 million from 120 million. The delta between GDP growth and population growth has been driven, in large part, by innovation.