Paylocity Holding Corporation (PCTY) Stock Price & How to Invest

Paylocity Holding Corporation runs a single cloud platform that handles payroll, tax filing, benefits administration, time and attendance, talent management and, since the Airbase acquisition, corporate spend management. Clients are typically US companies with 10 to 5,000 employees, and as of June 30, 2026 there were about 44,400 of them (excluding clients picked up through acquisitions), averaging more than 150 employees each. Pricing is a base fee plus a per-employee charge that scales with how many products a client turns on, which is why revenue grows on two axes: adding logos and selling more modules into the ones already there. In fiscal 2026 the client base grew roughly 7% while recurring revenue grew 12.2%, so about five points came from expansion inside existing accounts. Annual revenue retention has stayed above 92% in each of the last three fiscal years. The company employs around 6,900 people and is headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Fiscal 2026, which ended June 30, 2026, produced total revenue of about $1.77 billion, GAAP operating income of about $386 million and diluted EPS of $4.92, up 22.4% on a share count that shrank by nearly 4%. Free cash flow was about $428 million, or 24.2% of revenue, and the company spent about $398 million on buybacks during the year. The tension is in the guide. Management pointed fiscal 2027 recurring revenue at $1.777 billion to $1.792 billion, roughly 8% growth, against 12.2% just delivered, with the first quarter guided at about 10%. That implies a further slowdown through the year. Profitability is moving the other way: adjusted EBITDA excluding client-fund interest is guided to $587 million to $597 million against $534.9 million, so the margin story is still intact even as the top line cools. At about $152 per share and roughly $8.1 billion of market value, the stock sits well off its $182.83 fifty-two-week high and well above the $92.99 low set in April 2026.

The most concrete risk is the deceleration itself: guiding about 8% recurring growth after delivering 12.2%, with the first quarter at about 10%, implies the exit rate is lower still, and multiples on software tend to compress when growth crosses from double digits into single digits. Revenue is charged per client employee, so a soft US labor market shows up in Paylocity's numbers without any client actually churning. Interest on client funds is roughly 7% of revenue and moves with short-term rates, a line the company does not control. Competition is well capitalized and specifically names ADP, Paychex, Paycom, Dayforce and UKG in the filings, and the move into spend management adds an entirely separate set of rivals. Share-based compensation ran $138.7 million in fiscal 2026, roughly half of GAAP net income, so the gap between GAAP and non-GAAP profitability is material.

19 analysts publish price targets on PCTY, averaging $172.00 against a $152.36 price as of August 2026, or +12.9%. The published targets run from $128.00 to $250.00, a wide spread, and the ratings split 17 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 10 raises and 2 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full PCTY forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Paylocity Holding Corporation. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Land, then expand inside the client. Recurring revenue grew 12.2% in fiscal 2026 on a client base that grew about 7%, so most of the incremental growth came from selling more modules and capturing more per employee inside accounts Paylocity already had. The most optimistic published target, $250.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The most concrete risk is the deceleration itself: guiding about 8% recurring growth after delivering 12.2%, with the first quarter at about 10%, implies the exit rate is lower still, and multiples on software tend to compress when growth crosses from double digits into single digits. The most pessimistic target, $128.00, is roughly what PCTY is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on PCTY, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Paylocity Holding Corporation's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (FY2026, ended June 30, 2026): ~$1.77B, up ~11.0%
• Recurring and other revenue (FY2026): ~$1.65B, up ~12.2%
• Interest on funds held for clients (FY2026): ~$120M, down ~3%
• GAAP diluted EPS (FY2026): ~$4.92, up ~22.4%
• Free cash flow (FY2026): ~$428M (~24.2% of revenue)
• Market cap / trailing P/E: ~$8.1B / ~31x

The two revenue lines matter and are easy to conflate: screeners usually quote the ~$1.77 billion total, which includes ~$120 million of interest earned on client payroll cash, a line that moves with short-term rates rather than with software demand. Stripping it out, the software business grew 12.2% and carries a 32.4% adjusted EBITDA margin. Enterprise value is roughly $7.9 billion after ~$272 million of cash and ~$81 million of debt, putting the stock near 4.5 times trailing revenue and about 12 times trailing adjusted EBITDA, with a free cash flow yield above 5%.

Other names that sit close to PCTY: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get PCTY exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so PCTY sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where PCTY fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

PCTY is a profitable, cash-generative payroll platform at roughly 31 times trailing earnings, and the whole argument sits on whether the guided 8% recurring growth is a floor or a waypoint.

Whether PCTY is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is PCTY a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the PCTY stock forecast.

For income investors, whether PCTY pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does PCTY pay a dividend? And to weigh PCTY against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: PCTY vs ADP and PCTY vs BILL.