Paylocity Holding Corp (NASDAQ: PCTY) stock fell -0.16% on Monday to $152.29 against a previous-day closing price of $152.54. With 0.78 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 0.42 million shares. During the session, the Software – Application company that operates in wider Technology sector, reached to the highest price of $153.07 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $150.31. The 52-week range on PCTY shows that it touched its highest point at $235.00 and its lowest point at $139.40 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $204.72. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.96.
Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of PCTY was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 5.47%, but this was down by -19.54% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -21.73% while six-month performance fell -12.51%. The stock lost -26.47% in the past year, while it has lost -21.61% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for PCTY yields 2.56 with Next year EPS estimates of 6.90. For the next quarter, that number is 1.27. This implies an EPS growth rate of 17.87% for this year and 13.69% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 30.20% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 28.75%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 55.91 million PCTY shares are outstanding with a float of 43.68 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 30, 2023, short shares totaled 1.52 million, which was 2.70% higher than short shares on Sep 28, 2023. In addition to Mr. Steven I. Sarowitz as the firm’s Founder & Chairman, Mr. Steven R. Beauchamp serves as its Co-CEO & Director.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 78.05% of PCTY’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 46.40% of PCTY, in contrast to 29.63% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 25.40%. As the largest shareholder in PCTY with 13.38% of the stake, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. holds 7,513,436 shares worth 7,513,436. A second-largest stockholder of PCTY, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 4,084,064 shares, controlling over 7.27% of the firm’s shares. BlackRock Fund Advisors is the third largest shareholder in PCTY, holding 3,635,652 shares or 6.47% stake. With a 7.42% stake in PCTY, the T Rowe Price New Horizons Fund is the largest stakeholder. A total of 4,166,762 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, which owns about 2.37% of PCTY stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 1,329,751 shares valued at 238.56 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF holds 2.34% of the stake in PCTY, owning 1,314,700 shares worth 235.86 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for PCTY since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With PCTY analysts setting a high price target of $280.00 and a low target of $160.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $204.72. Based on these targets, PCTY could surge 83.86% to reach the target high and rise by 5.06% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 34.43% from current levels.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded PCTY stock several times over the past three months with 4 Buys and 85 Sells. In these transactions, 42,516 shares were bought while 249,987 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 24 while that of sell transactions has risen to 213 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 197,681 while 1,341,369 shares were sold.
