Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) Shares Gap Down to $160.51

Shares of Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $160.51, but opened at $154.89. Paylocity shares last traded at $154.22, with a volume of 39,420 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PCTY has been the topic of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Paylocity in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Paylocity from $205.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. BTIG Research decreased their price objective on Paylocity from $200.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays dropped their target price on Paylocity from $160.00 to $156.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price target on Paylocity from $200.00 to $171.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Paylocity presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.13.

Paylocity Stock Down 1.0 %

The stock has a market cap of $8.54 billion, a PE ratio of 44.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s fifty day moving average is $148.65 and its 200 day moving average is $155.82.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The software maker reported $1.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $357.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $350.29 million. Paylocity had a return on equity of 22.17% and a net margin of 14.74%. The company’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Paylocity Holding Co. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Paylocity news, CEO Steven R. Beauchamp sold 49,442 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.68, for a total transaction of $7,054,384.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,745,022 shares in the company, valued at approximately $248,979,738.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Steven R. Beauchamp sold 49,442 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.68, for a total value of $7,054,384.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,745,022 shares in the company, valued at $248,979,738.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Nicholas Rost sold 331 shares of Paylocity stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.73, for a total value of $45,919.63. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $659,106.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 51,173 shares of company stock worth $7,296,388 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 22.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Paylocity

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PCTY. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Paylocity by 16,049.0% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 7,913 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,304,000 after purchasing an additional 7,864 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Paylocity by 15.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,565 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,247,000 after buying an additional 1,017 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Paylocity during the 4th quarter valued at about $93,000. Metis Global Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Paylocity during the 4th quarter worth about $360,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Paylocity by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 266,936 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $44,004,000 after acquiring an additional 9,452 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 provides cloud-based human capital management and payroll software solutions for workforce in the United States. The company offers Payroll and Tax Services solution to simplifies payroll, automates processes, and manages compliance requirements within one system; and expense management, on demand payment, and garnishment solutions.