Paylocity Holding Corporation $PCTY Stock: Van Berkom & Associates Inc. Decreases Stake

Key Points

• Van Berkom & Associates cut its Paylocity stake by 18.1% in the third quarter, selling 102,420 shares. It retained 463,399 shares, valued at about $66.1 million; institutions collectively own 94.76% of the stock.
• Paylocity beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, reporting $2.09 in EPS and $451.67 million in revenue. Revenue grew 10.7% year over year.
• Analysts maintain a Moderate Buy consensus, with an average price target of $177.82. Recent insider sales totaled 151,704 shares over 90 days, though the reported transactions were made under pre-arranged trading plans.

Van Berkom & Associates Inc. decreased its position in Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY - Free Report) by 18.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 463,399 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 102,420 shares during the period. Paylocity accounts for about 2.4% of Van Berkom & Associates Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. owned approximately 0.89% of Paylocity worth $66,067,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Paylocity during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $430,315,000. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in Paylocity during the 2nd quarter worth about $70,540,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in Paylocity in the second quarter valued at $54,906,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Paylocity in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $54,867,000. Finally, Amundi grew its position in shares of Paylocity by 143.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 606,158 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $65,489,000 after acquiring an additional 357,001 shares during the period. 94.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Paylocity Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PCTY opened at $177.81 on Tuesday. Paylocity Holding Corporation has a 1-year low of $92.99 and a 1-year high of $181.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $156.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $127.63. The firm has a market cap of $9.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.43.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The software maker reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.16. Paylocity had a return on equity of 27.02% and a net margin of 15.23%. The firm had revenue of $451.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $443.12 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.75 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Paylocity Holding Corporation will post 6.94 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Paylocity news, Chairman Steven R. Beauchamp sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 15th. The shares were 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 $205,432,730.58. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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. Also, Director Steven Sarowitz sold 19,459 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.78, for a total value of $3,070,241.02. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,453,495 shares of the company's stock, valued at $702,672,441.10. The trade was a 0.44% 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 have sold a total of 151,704 shares of company stock valued at $25,137,741 over the last 90 days. 20.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PCTY. Citigroup upped their price target on Paylocity from $208.00 to $214.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp upped their target price 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. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Paylocity from $143.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Paylocity from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Paylocity from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Paylocity has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $177.82.

Paylocity Company Profile

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.

Founded in 1997 by Steve Sarowitz, Paylocity is headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois.

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