Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $233.25.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PCTY shares. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $254.00 price target (up from $212.00) on shares of Paylocity in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded Paylocity from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 7th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Paylocity from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $214.00 to $231.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Paylocity from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their target price on shares of Paylocity from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday.

Paylocity Trading Down 2.9 %

Shares of PCTY opened at $205.84 on Monday. Paylocity has a 1 year low of $129.94 and a 1 year high of $223.80. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $201.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $180.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market cap of $11.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 0.95.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by ($0.60). Paylocity had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 22.92%. On average, equities analysts expect that Paylocity will post 4.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Paylocity news, SVP Andrew Cappotelli sold 247 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.29, for a total transaction of $47,742.63. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 14,634 shares in the company, valued at $2,828,605.86. This trade represents a 1.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Steven I. Sarowitz sold 2,600 shares of Paylocity stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.14, for a total value of $520,364.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,332,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,635,928.58. This trade represents a 0.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 127,380 shares of company stock worth $25,830,669 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 21.91% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Paylocity

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Paylocity by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 4,764 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $950,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Paylocity by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 10,292 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,053,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in shares of Paylocity by 46.4% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,598 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,313,000 after purchasing an additional 3,677 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in Paylocity by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,156 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $630,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the period. Finally, Banco Santander S.A. bought a new position in Paylocity in the fourth quarter worth approximately $829,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.76% of the company’s stock.

Paylocity Company Profile

Paylocity Holding Corporation engages in the provision of cloud-based human capital management and payroll software solutions for workforce in the United States. The company offers payroll software solution for global payroll, expense management, tax services, on demand payment, and garnishment managed services; and time and labor management software for time and attendance, scheduling, and time collection.