Banco Santander S.A. Invests $829,000 in Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY)

Banco Santander S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Paylocity Holding Co. (NASDAQ:PCTY) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 4,154 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $829,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PCTY. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Paylocity by 3.6% in the third 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 boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Paylocity by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,373 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Paylocity by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 12,100 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,414,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PCTY. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Paylocity from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $254.00 price objective (up from $212.00) on shares of Paylocity in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Paylocity from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Paylocity from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $265.00 target price (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Paylocity in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $233.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paylocity

In other news, Director Steven I. Sarowitz sold 13,689 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.29, for a total value of $2,782,836.81. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,385,954 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,704,780,588.66. The trade was a 0.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 42,876 shares of company stock valued at $8,671,491. 21.91% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Paylocity Stock Up 2.2 %

PCTY opened at $195.11 on Monday. Paylocity Holding Co. has a fifty-two week low of $129.94 and a fifty-two week 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. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $203.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $189.46. The company has a market capitalization of $10.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.94.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.42 by ($0.60). Paylocity had a net margin of 14.76% and a return on equity of 22.45%. On average, analysts anticipate that Paylocity Holding Co. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

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.