Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,190,000 shares, a growth of 32.7% from the January 31st total of 896,900 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 429,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on PCTY shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Paylocity from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Paylocity from $211.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Paylocity from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Paylocity from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Paylocity from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $214.00 to $231.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Steven I. Sarowitz sold 13,689 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.29, for a total transaction of $2,782,836.81. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,385,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,704,780,588.66. The trade was a 0.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 63,849 shares of company stock valued at $12,982,226 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 21.91% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Paylocity

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PCTY. Creative Planning purchased a new stake in Paylocity during the third quarter valued at approximately $267,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Paylocity by 16,397.9% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 7,754 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after buying an additional 7,707 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its holdings in Paylocity by 7.2% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 5,046 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $832,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in Paylocity by 3.7% during the third quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 2,282 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $395,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tompkins Financial Corp purchased a new stake in Paylocity during the third quarter valued at approximately $82,000. 94.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Paylocity Stock Performance

Paylocity stock traded down $5.91 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $199.04. 521,733 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 499,267. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day moving average of $203.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $188.55. Paylocity has a 12 month low of $129.94 and a 12 month high of $223.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by ($0.60). Paylocity had a net margin of 14.76% and a return on equity of 22.45%. As a group, research analysts predict that Paylocity will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

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.