Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) Shares Down 3.6%

Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY)’s share price was down 3.6% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $157.48 and last traded at $158.24. Approximately 49,788 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 90% from the average daily volume of 488,089 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.19.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on PCTY shares. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Paylocity from $210.00 to $194.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. BTIG Research started coverage on shares of Paylocity in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $200.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Paylocity from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Paylocity from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Paylocity from $176.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $196.40.

Paylocity Stock Down 4.7 %

The company’s fifty day moving average is $165.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $162.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.88.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $401.28 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $396.93 million. Paylocity had a net margin of 14.42% and a return on equity of 22.08%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Paylocity Holding Co. will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jeffrey T. Diehl sold 1,760 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.64, for a total transaction of $302,086.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,523,794.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Steven R. Beauchamp sold 7,760 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.95, for a total value of $1,295,532.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,746,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $291,572,832.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jeffrey T. Diehl sold 1,760 shares of Paylocity stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.64, for a total transaction of $302,086.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,523,794.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 30,043 shares of company stock worth $5,056,642. Company insiders own 22.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 278,607 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Paylocity by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,158,224 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $685,483,000 after purchasing an additional 13,962 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its stake in Paylocity by 35.0% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,396,692 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $411,895,000 after purchasing an additional 621,946 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Paylocity by 119.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,211,021 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $199,637,000 after purchasing an additional 658,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in Paylocity in the 4th quarter worth about $82,172,000. Institutional investors own 94.76% of the company’s stock.

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.