Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) Stock: Insider Steven Sarowitz Sells 10,617 Shares

Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) Director Steven Sarowitz sold 10,617 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.76, for a total transaction of $1,802,341.92. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,404,139 shares in the company, valued at $747,646,636.64. The trade was a 0.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Paylocity Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PCTY traded up $8.34 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $177.67. 619,928 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 772,920. Paylocity Holding Corporation has a twelve month low of $92.99 and a twelve month high of $178.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $151.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $127.26. The stock has a market cap of $9.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.89, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.50.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $444.73 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $431.46 million. Paylocity had a return on equity of 27.02% and a net margin of 15.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Paylocity Holding Corporation will post 6.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Paylocity

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of PCTY. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Paylocity during the second quarter valued at approximately $430,315,000. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in shares of Paylocity in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $70,540,000. Amundi grew its position in shares of Paylocity by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 663,449 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $69,350,000 after acquiring an additional 57,291 shares in the last quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Paylocity by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. now owns 616,407 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $66,597,000 after acquiring an additional 93,065 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new stake in shares of Paylocity in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $54,906,000. Institutional investors own 94.76% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Paylocity

Here are the key news stories impacting Paylocity this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Paylocity launched Recruiting Optimizer, an AI-powered tool built on its Ignite AI platform. The company says it can improve recruiter productivity by 35%, accelerate hiring by 25%, and reduce candidate drop-off by 15%. The product could strengthen Paylocity’s competitive position in human-capital-management software and support additional customer adoption. Paylocity launches AI-powered Recruiting Optimizer
• Positive Sentiment: Citizens JMP raised its Paylocity price target from $150 to $180 while maintaining a “market outperform” rating. The increase signals greater confidence in the company’s earnings and growth prospects and provides a supportive valuation reference for the stock. Citizens JMP raises Paylocity price target
• Positive Sentiment: Recent operating results remain favorable: Paylocity exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $1.84 in earnings per share versus a $1.62 consensus estimate and $444.73 million in revenue versus expectations of $431.46 million. Revenue increased 11% year over year, supporting the bullish analyst view.
• Neutral Sentiment: A stock analysis highlighted Paylocity’s profitability and a 21.97% return on equity. While this indicates effective use of shareholder capital, the report offers limited new information likely to materially change near-term trading. Paylocity stock analysis and return on equity
• Negative Sentiment: Director Steven Sarowitz sold 10,445 shares for approximately $1.74 million. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and reduced his stake by only 0.24%, leaving him with more than 4.4 million shares; therefore, it is a limited concern, but insider selling can create modest pressure while the stock trades near a 52-week high. Paylocity director insider sale

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PCTY has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Paylocity in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Paylocity from $180.00 to $165.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 29th. Zacks Research downgraded Paylocity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Paylocity from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 19th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Paylocity from $168.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 20th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Paylocity has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $165.53.

About Paylocity

Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) provides cloud-based human capital management (HCM) and payroll software for organizations. Its platform is designed to help employers manage payroll, human resources, employee benefits, talent acquisition, onboarding, performance, learning, and workforce administration through an integrated system.

The company also offers tools for time and labor management, scheduling, employee communications, engagement, surveys, expense management, and other workplace activities.