Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday morning.

PCTY has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Truist Financial increased their target price on Paylocity from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Paylocity from $211.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup raised shares of Paylocity from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $214.00 to $231.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Paylocity from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $265.00 price target (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Paylocity in a report on Friday, February 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paylocity presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $233.25.

Paylocity Price Performance

Paylocity stock opened at $214.10 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.94 billion, a PE ratio of 54.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 0.95. Paylocity has a 12-month low of $129.94 and a 12-month high of $223.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $201.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $182.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.42 by ($0.60). Paylocity had a net margin of 14.76% and a return on equity of 22.93%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Paylocity will post 4.46 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Paylocity

In other Paylocity news, SVP Andrew Cappotelli sold 247 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.29, for a total value of $47,742.63. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 14,634 shares in the company, valued at $2,828,605.86. This trade represents a 1.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Nicholas Rost sold 212 shares of Paylocity stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.29, for a total transaction of $40,977.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 7,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,423,387.56. This represents a 2.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 127,380 shares of company stock valued at $25,830,669 over the last quarter. 21.91% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Paylocity

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP raised its stake in Paylocity by 470.8% in the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 16,101 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,212,000 after buying an additional 13,280 shares during the last quarter. Bryce Point Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Paylocity in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,386,000. Huntington National Bank raised its position in shares of Paylocity by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 431 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Paylocity by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,073,988 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $214,275,000 after purchasing an additional 25,182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HighPoint Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Paylocity by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 1,559 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. 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.