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PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION

PCTY · Technology · $6.9B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · Wide moat ·

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Wide moat
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The five investor questions

100

2021–2025 (latest 5 aligned FYs; v3 window cap 5): revenue $632M to $1.5B, increasing; diluted EPS 1.26 to 4.02, increasing.

93

Median gross margin 68.1% over 10y, stable.

97

Median ROIC 21.8%, above the 12% hurdle in 90% of years.

100

Net cash position — no leverage risk.

27

Owner earnings changed trend unclear over up to the ten most recent annual observations.

Price vs. value if growth stopped today

A cautious baseline, not a price target: what the shares may support if normalized owner earnings simply hold steady.

Above value if growth stopped todayBelow value if growth stopped today
247% above value if growth stopped today
$180M
$36.08
$58.45
$125.27
247% above value if growth stopped today

What today’s price assumes: owner earnings growing ~28%/yr over 5 years. The zero-growth estimate assumes owner earnings stay flat (0% growth).

How to read this

We solve for the constant annual change in owner earnings that would make the five-year zero-growth estimate equal today’s price. This keeps the existing model inputs and calculation unchanged; it is an expectations lens, not a forecast.

This zero-growth estimate assumes trailing owner earnings persist — unreliable for declining businesses. The recent FY revenue series does not trigger the three-consecutive-declines flag.

Among the current top-score group, the median current price is 239% above the zero-growth estimate across 48 of the current top 50 companies by Moat Score with both values.

Score records captured Jul 26, 2026.

Exactly which 50 companies?

FTNT, META, MEDP, IBEX, MSFT, GOOGL, LULU, ANF, IDXX, TXRH, FHI, QLYS, FFIV, ADBE, LLY, MANH, VEEV, GRMN, SSD, MNST, DOCS, MCO, CPRT, NTAP, LRCX, NVDA, CORT, SFM, MPTI, ULTA, SN, RMD, ROL, PAYC, IRMD, INTU, DECK, MORN, LGCY, DAL, GWW, ISRG, MPWR, CTAS, LOPE, MRK, CMG, FAST, BKNG, ORLY

Missing a usable price or zero-growth estimate: ANF, BKNG.

Model details under moat-index@3.0.0: zero-growth multiple 11.1×, capped-growth comparison at no more than 18×; 9% discount rate; high-end growth 4% (capped at 4%) using min(5y revenue CAGR, 5y diluted-EPS CAGR), clamped to 0%–4%; maintenance capex uses min(capex, D&A); abstain when D&A is unavailable. This is a disclosed model range, not intrinsic value as fact.

15 years of fundamentals

The business, in plain English

PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION booked $1.5B of revenue in FY2025 in the Technology sector and kept 74.5% of it as gross profit — a high-margin business by that measure. After every other cost, 15.4% of each revenue dollar reached the bottom line.

Across the filed record, revenue grew from $55.1M (FY2012) to $1.5B (FY2025) — about 28.8% a year compounded over 13 years.

It earned 22.4% on invested capital in the latest filed year, FY2025. Across the full 12-year measurable filed record, median ROIC was 21.1%. Over the v3 recent window (10 measurable filed years), median ROIC was 21.8%. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 97/100.

The balance sheet carried $163M of total debt in FY2025 against $314M of owner earnings — roughly 0.5 years of owner earnings to retire it all. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 100/100.

Put together: Business Trend is the strongest of the five filters (100/100) and Capital Allocation the weakest (27/100), which is how PCTY lands at 83/100 — a Wide moat.

This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.

FY2011–FY2025 · 15 fiscal years, normalized from PCTY’s SEC filings

Sales, as filed$1.5B FY2025
$0$1B2011201620212025
Revenue kept after cost of goods74.5% FY2025
0%50%2011201620212025
Standard ROIC or separately labeled Operating ROICROIC 22.4% FY2025

Not meaningful FY2013: invested capital is negative (cash exceeds debt + equity)

−50%0%2011201620212025
Cash an owner could take out$314M FY2025
$0$200M2011201620212025

The explained ROIC gaps have filed inputs but no meaningful positive invested-capital denominator. Other gaps mean the item is not in the filings for that year. The series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.

Flagship explainer

How PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION makes its money

Start with a dollar of revenue and follow what the filing says remains.

revenueBranching filed flows with values and percentages directly labeled. Missing filing concepts are omitted rather than estimated.Revenue$1.5B · 100%Cost of revenue$498M · 34%Gross profit$1.1B · 75%Operating income$304M · 21%Income before tax$309M · 21%Income tax$81.9M · 6%Net income$227M · 15%As of 2025-06-30 · 1 SEC filing sourceBuy Like Buffett · buylikebuffett.com

Honest partial: the filing did not provide a normalized tag for Research and development, Selling, general and administrative; those components are omitted, not plugged.

Table alternative
Filed lineValue% of revenueSource
$1.5B100%
Cost of revenue$498M34%
$1.1B75%
$304M21%
Income before tax$309M21%
Income tax$81.9M6%
$227M15%
Source: · event Jun 30, 2025 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026 · annual-row source set
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Flagship explainer

What PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION owns — and owes

PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION's filing tags don't support a full breakdown — here's what is filed:

Table alternative
Filed lineValue% of assetsSource
Total assets$4.4B100%
Cash and equivalents$398M9%
$163M4%
Stockholders’ equity$1.2B28%
Source: · event Jun 30, 2025 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026 · annual-row source set

Flagship explainer

What drives PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION’s return on equity?

ROE is five filed business factors multiplied together.

DuPont return on equity factor treeReturn on equity branches into tax burden, interest burden, operating margin, asset turnover, and the equity multiplier.Return on equity20%Tax burden73%net income ÷ pretax incomeInterest burden102%pretax ÷ operating incomeOperating margin21%operating income ÷ revenueAsset turnover0.34×revenue ÷ average assetsEquity multiplier3.81×average assets ÷ average equityAs of 2025-06-30 · 1 SEC filing sourceBuy Like Buffett · buylikebuffett.com
DuPont source inputs
InputValueFiscal yearSource
$227MFY2025
Income before tax$309MFY2025
Operating income$304MFY2025
$1.5BFY2025
Ending assets$4.4BFY2025
Beginning assets$4.2BFY2024
$1.2BFY2025
$1.0BFY2024
Source:
  • SEC filingFiling detailsAccession 0001591698-25-000087
· event Jun 30, 2025 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026 · annual-row source set
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Flagship explainer

Where PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION's cash went

PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION’s filing does not supply enough provenance-matched cash-flow lines for a truthful flow chart — here’s what is filed:

Table alternative
Filed lineValue% of cash from operationsSource
Cash from operations$418M100%
Depreciation and amortization$99.6M24%
Source: · event Jun 30, 2025 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026 · annual-row source set

Curated 19-manager tier

Who reported holding PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION

Delayed public 13F reports for 2026-Q2—not live positions, trades, or recommendations.

0 holding0 exited1 not holding1/19 resolved18 unavailable

Named manager positions and quarter-over-quarter changes
ManagerReported positionQuarter-over-quarterFiling accession
Markel / Markel-GaynerNo position reportedNo position reported
Abrams CapitalUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Akre CapitalUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Baupost GroupUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Berkshire HathawayUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Brave Warrior AdvisorsUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Dodge & CoxUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
First EagleUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
FundsmithUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Gardner Russo & QuinnUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Gates Foundation TrustUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Mairs & PowerUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Oakmark / Harris AssociatesUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Pershing SquareUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Polen CapitalUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Sequoia / Ruane CunniffUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Southeastern Asset ManagementUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Tweedy, BrowneUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable
Yacktman Asset ManagementUnavailableComparison unavailableFiling unavailable

Position size uses shares and filed value from each manager’s 13F. Portfolio weight uses the eligible long-share filing denominator. Changes compare only with the immediately preceding calendar quarter.

Source: · event Jun 30, 2026 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026

Flagship explainer

What PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION insiders reported

Insider activity is unavailable from the source; no zero-activity claim is shown.

Unavailable: Form 4 activity could not be retrieved for this rendering.

Moat Score history

16 logged readings since Jul 17, 2026 · append-only, never rewritten

Moat Score over timeLast scored reading of each day, on the 0–100 scale83.4 / 100
0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatJul 17, 2026Jul 26, 2026

Breaks in the line mark methodology or normalizer upgrades — readings across versions aren’t compared, so a level shift there isn’t a change in the business.

Tier changesSame-methodology and same-normalizer crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars

  1. Normalizer upgraded unstamped (version unknown)moat-xbrl-normalizer@1.1.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 26, 2026
  2. Methodology upgraded moat-index@2.0.0moat-index@3.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 23, 2026
  3. Methodology upgraded moat-index@1.2.0moat-index@2.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 20, 2026

Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record cannot be reconstructed retroactively, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.

Insider activity

Form 4 reports mix P/S market or private transactions with compensation-plan mechanics. Activity casually described as “insider selling” can include compensation mechanics; awards, tax withholding, and option exercises are shown by their exact filed class here, never collapsed into “Bought” or “Sold.”

These are disclosed filing facts and arithmetic aggregates, not a signal or verdict.

The insider-filing service is temporarily unavailable, so no partial or guessed answer is shown for PCTY.

Track record

How PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION’s moat rated in each of the years we can reconstruct from its filings — scored only on what was knowable at the time — and what its price and returns did afterward. The score never saw a price; the two are joined only in hindsight, for education, not as a signal.

Point-in-time scores 2014–2025, one methodology version · reconstructed from filings on file each Dec 31 — never with hindsight

Point-in-time Moat Score (dot colored by tier)Indexed price (total-return (dividends reinvested))Rated Wide-moat that year

How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored PCTY on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.

0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatPoint-in-time Moat Score1002005001,000Indexed price · log scale (2015 = 100)2014201620182020202220242026

Two tracks, one timeline: the score has its own 0–100 scale (top), the price its own 100-based scale (bottom) — never a shared axis. The price path is a total-return (dividends reinvested) index built from the same data the forward returns use; gaps in the score line are years with no reconstructed rating (see the table for why). The Table view carries every value.

What followed, in the years it rated Wide

In the 5 years PCTY rated Wide-moat (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025), the median forward total return that followed — measured only after each year’s filings were public — was:

  • 1 year −16% vs the S&P 500’s 20% (price basis) · median over 4 years
  • 3 years −20% vs the S&P 500’s 51% (price basis) · median over 2 years
  • 5 years None of the 5 years it rated Wide has a fully elapsed 5-year window with a benchmark to compare against yet.

These are medians computed from the data, not a claim about any one year. The company figures are total returns (dividends reinvested); the S&P 500 is the price-only ^GSPC index, which excludes dividends and so understates the index — the gap flatters the company. A quality rating is not a return forecast, and past returns don’t predict future ones. Educational only, not investment advice.

Technology context

#44 of 744 scored Technology companies, ranked by Moat Score.

Nearest peers by Moat Score

  1. #42CTSH COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION84.1Wide moat
  2. #43TZOO Travelzoo83.4Wide moat
  3. #45AAPL Apple Inc.82.7Wide moat
  4. #46CARG CarGurus, Inc.82.6Wide moat

Compare PCTY with its nearest peers →All Technology companies on the Index →

Common questions about PCTY

Does PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION have an economic moat?
Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores PAYLOCITY HOLDING CORPORATION (PCTY) 83.4 out of 100 — a Wide moat. The five questions behind that score begin at 20% each; if exactly one genuinely lacks data, the other four weights are renormalized and disclosed. revenue and EPS trend 100, pricing power 93, returns on capital 97, balance-sheet safety 100, capital allocation 27.
Is PCTY trading below the conservative owner-earnings estimate?
The value if growth stopped today — a zero-growth baseline — is $36.08 per share. It capitalizes normalized owner earnings at a 9% rate and assumes 0% growth. Versus a recent price of $125.27, that is 247% above value if growth stopped today. The model also publishes a capped-growth comparison, but the zero-growth estimate is the cautious baseline. It assumes trailing owner earnings persist and is unreliable for declining businesses. This is an educational estimate from primary SEC filings, not intrinsic value as a fact or investment advice.
How has PCTY's Moat Score changed over time?
The record logs 16 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 83.4 out of 100 (wide moat). No tier changes on record yet. (Methodology or normalizer upgrades on Jul 20, 2026, Jul 23, 2026, Jul 26, 2026 re-based the score; readings across versions aren't compared.) The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.

Scored from primary SEC filings via the public methodology. Educational only — not a recommendation to buy or sell PCTY. See the disclaimer.