Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) Stock Dropped to Hold by Wall Street Zen

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY - Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued to investors on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on PCTY. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Paylocity from $178.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Paylocity in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Paylocity in a report on Tuesday, September 29th. Citizens Jmp lifted their price objective on shares of Paylocity from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 6th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Paylocity from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $177.82.

Paylocity Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of PCTY traded down $0.70 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $178.22. The company had a trading volume of 533,578 shares, compared to its average volume of 753,195. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $158.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $128.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.43. Paylocity has a 1 year low of $92.99 and a 1 year high of $181.57.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 5th. The software maker reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.16. Paylocity had a return on equity of 27.59% and a net margin of 15.40%. The business had revenue of $451.67 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $443.12 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.75 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Paylocity will post 6.94 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paylocity

In other news, Director Steven Sarowitz sold 400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.04, for a total transaction of $72,016.00. Following the sale, the director owned 4,340,695 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $781,498,727.80. This trade represents a 0.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 159,404 shares of company stock worth $26,527,019. 20.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Paylocity

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PCTY. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Paylocity by 18.9% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 49,614 shares of the software maker's stock worth $5,360,000 after buying an additional 7,891 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Paylocity during the second quarter worth about $54,906,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in Paylocity by 181.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 32,688 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $3,411,000 after acquiring an additional 21,083 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new position in Paylocity in the 2nd quarter valued at about $20,119,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Paylocity during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $430,315,000. 94.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Paylocity

Paylocity Holding Corporation provides cloud-based human capital management and payroll software to businesses in the United States. Its platform brings together tools that help employers manage payroll, human resources, benefits, and workforce operations. Products and services include payroll processing, benefits administration, time and labor management, talent acquisition and development, employee communications, and expense management. The platform is designed to help organizations streamline administrative work and support employees and managers through a unified system.

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