Short Interest in Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) Expands By 32.7%

Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,190,000 shares, an increase of 32.7% from the January 31st total of 896,900 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 429,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Steven I. Sarowitz sold 13,689 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.29, for a total value of $2,782,836.81. Following the transaction, the director now directly 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 56,949 shares of company stock worth $11,539,988. Company insiders own 21.91% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Paylocity

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its holdings in Paylocity by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 9,603 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,916,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in Paylocity by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 19,118 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,813,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Paylocity by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,652 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Paylocity by 29.9% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 274 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Paylocity by 41.1% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 247 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.76% of the company’s stock.

Paylocity Price Performance

PCTY opened at $201.96 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Paylocity has a 12 month low of $129.94 and a 12 month high of $223.80. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $203.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $188.64. The stock has a market cap of $11.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.95.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 EPS 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%. On average, research analysts expect that Paylocity will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on PCTY. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Paylocity from $240.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup raised Paylocity from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $214.00 to $231.00 in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Mizuho raised Paylocity from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $235.00 in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $265.00 price objective (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Paylocity in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Paylocity from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Paylocity presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.25.

About Paylocity

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.