Paymentus (NYSE:PAY) Trading Down 5% – Here’s What Happened

Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY)’s stock price dropped 5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $32.67 and last traded at $32.7690. 432,751 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 51% from the average daily volume of 891,033 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.50.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Paymentus from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Seaport Research Partners began coverage on shares of Paymentus in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $42.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research lowered Paymentus from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Paymentus from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Paymentus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Paymentus has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.67.

Paymentus Stock Performance

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.75. The company has a market cap of $4.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.74 and a beta of 1.31.

Paymentus (NYSE:PAY) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.06. Paymentus had a net margin of 6.24% and a return on equity of 15.26%. The company had revenue of $360.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $345.44 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.11 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 28.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Paymentus Holdings, Inc. will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Paymentus

In other Paymentus news, CFO Sanjay Kalra sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.21, for a total transaction of $1,030,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 508,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,955,532.26. The trade was a 4.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Gary Trainor sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.79, for a total value of $3,263,200.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 509,888 shares in the company, valued at $20,798,331.52. This trade represents a 13.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 147,909 shares of company stock valued at $5,735,337. Insiders own 55.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Paymentus by 42.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 835,799 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $21,227,000 after buying an additional 248,514 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Paymentus by 77.1% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 64,131 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,629,000 after acquiring an additional 27,921 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Paymentus by 155.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 349,993 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,890,000 after acquiring an additional 212,778 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in Paymentus in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,008,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Paymentus by 83.8% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 72,999 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,854,000 after purchasing an additional 33,278 shares during the period. 78.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Paymentus Company Profile

Paymentus Holdings, Inc (NYSE: PAY) provides cloud-based electronic bill presentment and payment technology. Its platform enables organizations to issue bills and invoices, accept digital payments, and manage payment-related communications through web, mobile, text, interactive voice response, and other channels.

The company serves billers across industries including utilities, government, financial services, telecommunications, insurance, and other recurring-payment businesses. Its offerings are designed to support payment processing, billing and account management, customer engagement, automated notifications, and related back-office workflows through a unified software platform.

Paymentus was founded in 2004 and primarily serves organizations in the United States and Canada.