Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) Sets New 1-Year Low After Analyst Downgrade

Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY)’s share price reached a new 52-week low on Tuesday after Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on the stock from $180.00 to $145.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a hold rating on the stock. Paylocity traded as low as $132.60 and last traded at $133.75, with a volume of 36378 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $135.10.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Barclays lifted their target price on Paylocity from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Paylocity from $205.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Paylocity from $210.00 to $194.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Paylocity from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Paylocity from $178.00 to $155.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Paylocity currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $190.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Paylocity news, CAO Nicholas Rost sold 331 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.73, for a total value of $45,919.63. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $659,106.23. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 22.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Paylocity

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of Paylocity by 25.2% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 192,028 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $31,654,000 after purchasing an additional 38,613 shares during the period. Evoke Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Paylocity in the fourth quarter worth about $2,507,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in shares of Paylocity by 274.8% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 65,010 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,717,000 after purchasing an additional 47,663 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Paylocity in the fourth quarter worth about $1,938,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Paylocity by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,144,262 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $753,012,000 after purchasing an additional 25,562 shares during the period. 94.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Paylocity Price Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $152.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $160.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.90.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.29. Paylocity had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 14.42%. The firm had revenue of $401.28 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $396.93 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Paylocity Holding Co. will post 3.95 EPS for the current year.

Paylocity Company Profile

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.