Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) Stock Has Average Price Target of $177.82

Shares of Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $177.82.

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $201.00 price target on shares of Paylocity in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. BTIG Research lifted their price target on Paylocity from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 6th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Paylocity from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Barclays upped their price objective on Paylocity from $162.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 6th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Paylocity from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th.

Paylocity Stock Performance

Paylocity stock traded down $0.70 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $178.22. 533,578 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 753,195. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $158.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $128.30. The firm has a market cap of $9.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.43. Paylocity has a fifty-two week low of $92.99 and a fifty-two week high of $181.57.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The software maker reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $451.67 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $443.12 million. Paylocity had a return on equity of 27.59% and a net margin of 15.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.75 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Paylocity will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Steven Sarowitz sold 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.04, for a total transaction of $72,016.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,340,695 shares in the company, valued at approximately $781,498,727.80. This trade represents a 0.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 159,404 shares of company stock valued at $26,527,019 in the last quarter. 20.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Paylocity

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PCTY. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Paylocity during the second quarter valued at $430,315,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in Paylocity in the 2nd quarter worth about $70,540,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Paylocity during the 2nd quarter worth about $54,906,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Paylocity during the 2nd quarter worth about $54,867,000. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in Paylocity by 143.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 606,158 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $65,489,000 after acquiring an additional 357,001 shares in the last quarter. 94.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Paylocity Company Profile

Paylocity Holding Corporation provides cloud-based human capital management and payroll software to businesses in the United States. Its platform brings together tools that help employers manage payroll, human resources, benefits, and workforce operations. Products and services include payroll processing, benefits administration, time and labor management, talent acquisition and development, employee communications, and expense management. The platform is designed to help organizations streamline administrative work and support employees and managers through a unified system.