StockNews.com Upgrades Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning.

PCTY has been the topic of a number of other reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Paylocity from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Paylocity from $187.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Paylocity from $175.00 to $203.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Paylocity from $174.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BTIG Research decreased their target price on shares of Paylocity from $200.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Paylocity presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $193.87.

Paylocity Stock Up 3.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ PCTY traded up $7.19 during trading on Friday, hitting $191.76. The company had a trading volume of 792,457 shares, compared to its average volume of 501,178. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $165.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $155.10. Paylocity has a fifty-two week low of $129.94 and a fifty-two week high of $192.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 0.95.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The software maker reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $357.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $350.29 million. Paylocity had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 23.29%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Paylocity will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Rachit Lohani sold 658 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.83, for a total transaction of $107,142.14. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,474,772.12. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 21.91% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Paylocity

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Paylocity in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,540,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in shares of Paylocity by 55.2% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 36,818 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,328,000 after buying an additional 13,093 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Paylocity in the 1st quarter valued at $729,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Paylocity by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,833,794 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,518,176,000 after purchasing an additional 278,607 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors acquired a new stake in Paylocity during the 1st quarter worth $46,902,000. 94.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Paylocity Company Profile

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.