4 models fit Barrett Business Services Inc. Common Stock and they disagree: 0 of 4 land within 15% of the average.
Two or more of our models back this value.
Near fair value(i)Silver71
Valued as a mature, profitable company: Discounted cash flow, P/E comparison, EV/EBITDA comparison, Graham number, and Dividend discount.
ACCE opinionBarrett Business Services Inc. Common Stock (BBSI)
Fair value (4 models)
$33.23
ACCE price target
$34.40
Rating
Fairly valued
Horizon
12 months
Fair value published on 14 Oct 2026, 00:00 CEST; previously $33.73 since 10 Oct 2026, 00:00 CEST.
ACCE price target published on 13 Oct 2026, 00:00 CEST.
Rating published on 18 Oct 2026, 16:04 CEST.
Price used: $33.22 at the close on 23 Oct 2026, 22:00 CEST.
Models: Discounted cash flow, Dividend discount, EV/EBITDA comparison, Graham number, and P/E comparison.
Fair value: the average of the applicable valuation models (discounted cash flow, multiples, residual income, dividend discount, shareholder yield), each run on the latest financial statements and the market price shown. Opinion columns (fair value, target, rating) are shown apart from the data. Full methodology: acceinvestments.com/data/how-we-value-stocks
Conflicts of interest: The author holds no personal position in this security. General statement
Produced by ACCE Investments (acceinvestments.com)
Data
Price vs fair value
0.0% below
+0.0% to fair value
ACCE score
49
out of 100
Analysts
67% buy
3 covering
P/E
24.8x
forward 16.4x
1-year return
-20.3%
Dividend yield
0.98%
Barrett Business Services Inc. Common Stock in four questions
Plain answers, details below
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Overview
ACCE thesis
Barrett Business Services runs a professional employer organization (PEO) that handles payroll, benefits, workers' compensation and HR compliance for small and mid-sized businesses, mostly in the US. Its edge is the insurance and risk-management layer bundled with the payroll service, which is hard for smaller rivals to replicate at scale and is what keeps client retention high. The growth case rests on steady expansion of its client base and pricing discipline rather than a single catalyst, with revenue up 3.8% and a 16.3% return on equity. At 16.6 times forward earnings against 23.8 times trailing, the market is pricing in a meaningful earnings recovery, and a 4.8% operating margin on a 20.6% gross margin leaves little room for error if that recovery stalls. The score of 49 out of 100 and absence from any index are worth weighing before committing research time, but the forward multiple gap is the reason to look harder at the margin trajectory.
⚠ Investor warnings · 1 flagAI-assisted·How I use AI
moderate
Earnings declining despite revenue growth
Revenue grew 3.8% year on year but earnings fell 25.7%, and quarter on quarter revenue dropped 0.0%. Net margin is only 2.8%, so the business has little cushion if costs keep rising.
AI research notes
AI-assisted·How I use AIWritten Oct 20, 2026 · figures from 2026-06-30 · prices to Oct 23, 2026
Why it could do well
Trailing free cash flow reached $47M over the last twelve months, and the stock offers a 6.0% free cash flow yield.
Return on invested capital of 16.8% and return on equity of 16.3% show the business earns solid returns on the capital it uses.
The share count fell 3.5% in the last fiscal year, so each remaining share claims a larger slice of the business.
Why it could disappoint
Latest quarterly earnings per share came in 7.1% below expectations, at 0.52 against 0.56 forecast.
Revenue grew only 3.8% over the past year, well below the 7.1% average annual pace of the last five years.
At a forward P/E of 16.6x against a sector median of 23.6x, the market is pricing in a rebound that growth has not yet shown.
Each chip shows the exact figure and where it comes from. A claim without a source is not published.
Next results
Nov 4, 2026
We update the fair value about 2 days after the results, once the new figures are filed.Add to calendarGoogle
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Valuation
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Where BBSI's valuation models land
Price
$33.22
Model fair value
$33.23
Model range
$21.74 to $44.63
Fair value $33.23
Price $33.22
The price sits inside the model range.
Model
Fair value
Upside
Discounted cash flow
Dividend discount
EV/EBITDA comparison
Graham number
P/E comparison
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Quality
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