Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded Paylocity from “hold” to “buy.” Overall analyst sentiment is “Moderate Buy,” with a consensus price target of $160.53 based on 12 Buy and five Hold ratings.
• Paylocity reported quarterly earnings of $1.84 per share, exceeding estimates of $1.62, while revenue reached $444.73 million and increased 11% year over year.
• The stock opened at $143.73, with a market capitalization of $7.63 billion. Insiders sold $8.32 million worth of shares over the past 90 days, while institutional investors own 94.76% of the company.

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

Several other brokerages have also commented on PCTY. Zacks Research lowered Paylocity from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Paylocity from $168.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Paylocity from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Paylocity from $180.00 to $165.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Paylocity in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $160.53.

Paylocity Price Performance

Paylocity stock opened at $143.73 on Friday. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $143.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.56. Paylocity has a 12-month low of $92.99 and a 12-month high of $169.56. The stock has a market cap of $7.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.04 and a beta of 0.45.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $444.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $431.46 million. Paylocity had a net margin of 15.23% and a return on equity of 27.02%. Paylocity's revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Paylocity will post 6.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Paylocity

In other Paylocity news, SVP Joshua Scutt sold 4,730 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.82, for a total value of $708,648.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 75,729 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,345,718.78. This represents a 5.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 3,145 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.80, for a total transaction of $493,136.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,207 shares in the company, valued at $346,057.60. The trade was a 58.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 54,214 shares of company stock worth $8,322,580 over the last ninety days. 19.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Paylocity

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Paylocity by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 10,472 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,131,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in Paylocity by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,419 shares of the software maker's stock worth $521,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming raised its holdings in Paylocity by 16.0% during the first quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 861 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $93,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Paylocity by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,382 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,126,000 after buying an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of Paylocity by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 29,653 shares of the software maker's stock worth $4,535,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. 94.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Paylocity Company Profile

Paylocity Holding Corporation is a provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) and workforce management software. Its platform is designed to help organizations manage payroll, human resources, employee benefits, talent, compliance and workforce operations through a unified system.

The company's products and services include payroll processing, time and labor management, benefits administration, recruiting, onboarding, performance management, employee surveys and workplace communication tools.

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