Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Shares of Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY - Get Free Report) have received an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $223.00.

A number of research firms recently commented on PCTY. Mizuho reduced their price target on Paylocity from $245.00 to $220.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Paylocity from $250.00 to $220.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Paylocity from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Paylocity in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Paylocity from $210.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd.

Paylocity Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of PCTY traded down $0.65 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $200.39. The stock had a trading volume of 385,631 shares, compared to its average volume of 463,326. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $188.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $197.91. Paylocity has a twelve month low of $129.94 and a twelve month high of $223.80. The firm has a market cap of $11.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The software maker reported $2.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $454.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $441.77 million. Paylocity had a return on equity of 22.45% and a net margin of 14.76%. Paylocity's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.21 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Paylocity will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paylocity

In other news, Director Steven I. Sarowitz sold 26,252 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.91, for a total transaction of $5,116,777.32. Following the transaction, the director now owns 420,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $81,862,200. This represents a 5.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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 PCTY. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Paylocity by 138.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 650,599 shares of the software maker's stock worth $129,775,000 after acquiring an additional 377,835 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Paylocity by 31.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,332,213 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $265,737,000 after acquiring an additional 320,319 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Paylocity by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,312,832 shares of the software maker's stock worth $807,966,000 after buying an additional 283,430 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in Paylocity in the 1st quarter worth approximately $47,998,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Paylocity by 190.0% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 349,797 shares of the software maker's stock worth $69,774,000 after buying an additional 229,179 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.76% of the company's stock.

About Paylocity

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.