Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) Stock Gets Price Target Increase from BTIG Research

Key Points

• BTIG Research raised its Paylocity price target from $200 to $210 and maintained a Buy rating, implying about 23.8% upside from the current share price.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive: 12 analysts rate the stock Buy and five rate it Hold, for a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average target of $175.47.
• Paylocity beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $2.09 in EPS and $451.67 million in revenue; revenue grew 10.7% year over year.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY - Get Free Report) had its price target hoisted by analysts at BTIG Research from $200.00 to $210.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the software maker's stock. BTIG Research's price objective points to a potential upside of 23.84% from the company's current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Paylocity from $154.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Paylocity from $178.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. UBS Group set a $175.00 price target on Paylocity in a report on Tuesday, September 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $201.00 price target on Paylocity in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Paylocity from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, October 24th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $175.47.

Paylocity Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of PCTY opened at $169.57 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.43. Paylocity has a 12-month low of $92.99 and a 12-month high of $178.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $155.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $127.26.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The software maker reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $451.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $443.12 million. Paylocity had a net margin of 15.23% and a return on equity of 27.02%. The firm's revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.75 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Paylocity will post 6.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Paylocity news, Director Steven Sarowitz sold 19,459 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.78, for a total transaction of $3,070,241.02. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,453,495 shares in the company, valued at $702,672,441.10. This represents a 0.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Chairman Steven R. Beauchamp sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.22, for a total value of $2,478,300.00. Following the sale, the chairman owned 1,243,389 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $205,432,730.58. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 151,704 shares of company stock valued at $25,137,741 in the last three months. 19.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Paylocity

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. R Squared Ltd raised its stake in Paylocity by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter. R Squared Ltd now owns 3,594 shares of the software maker's stock worth $512,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its position in Paylocity by 42.9% during the 3rd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 2,897 shares of the software maker's stock worth $413,000 after acquiring an additional 869 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Paylocity by 88.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 18,387 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,621,000 after purchasing an additional 8,638 shares during the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC grew its stake in Paylocity by 86.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 4,342 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $619,000 after purchasing an additional 2,018 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaCore Capital LLC grew its stake in Paylocity by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 15,178 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,164,000 after purchasing an additional 911 shares during the last quarter. 94.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Paylocity

Paylocity Holding Corporation NASDAQ: PCTY provides cloud-based human capital management (HCM) and payroll software for organizations. Its platform is designed to help employers manage payroll, human resources, employee benefits, talent acquisition, onboarding, performance, learning, and workforce administration through an integrated system.

The company also offers tools for time and labor management, scheduling, employee communications, engagement, surveys, expense management, and other workplace activities.

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