Payroll and human resources software provider, Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) beat analyst expectations in Q4 FY2021 quarter, with revenue up 28.2% year on year to $167.4 million. Paylocity made a GAAP profit of $11.8 million, improving on its profit of $4.95 million, in the same quarter last year.
Is now the time to buy Paylocity? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free.
Paylocity (PCTY) Q4 FY2021 Highlights:
- Revenue: $167.4 million vs analyst estimates of $162 million (3.33% beat)
- EPS (non-GAAP): $0.46 vs analyst estimates of $0.30 ($0.16 beat)
- Revenue guidance for Q1 2022 is $173.5 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $168.4 million
- Management's revenue guidance for upcoming financial year 2022 is $792.5 million at the midpoint, predicting 24.6% growth (vs 16.9% in FY2021)
- Free cash flow of $30.8 million, down 46% from previous quarter
- Gross Margin (GAAP): 64.7%, down from 69.1% previous quarter
“Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a solid fiscal 21, which included 16% recurring and other revenue growth and strong momentum across the business as we head into fiscal 22,” said Steve Beauchamp, Chief Executive Officer of Paylocity.
Founded by Steve Sarowitz in 1997, Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) is a provider of payroll and human resources software for small and medium-sized enterprises.
With employees distributed across multiple geographies, payroll compliance is getting more complicated, and as the digitization of HR functions trickles down from the enterprise market to small and medium businesses, the demand for modern HR software platforms is expected to grow.
Sales Growth
As you can see below, Paylocity's revenue growth has been solid over the last year, growing from quarterly revenue of $130.5 million, to $167.4 million.
This quarter, Paylocity's quarterly revenue was up a very solid 28.2% year on year, which is above average for the company. But the revenue actually decreased by $18.6 million in Q4, compared to $39.7 million increase in Q3 2021. However, Paylocity's sales do seem to have a seasonal pattern to them, and since management is guiding for revenue to rebound in the coming quarter we wouldn't be too concerned.
Analysts covering the company are expecting the revenues to grow 22.1% over the next twelve months, although we would expect them to review their estimates once they get to read these results.
There are others doing even better. Founded by ex-Google engineers, a small company making software for banks has been growing revenue 90% year on year and is already up more than 400% since the IPO in December. You can find it on our platform for free.
Profitability
What makes the software as a service business so attractive is that once the software is developed, it typically shouldn't cost much to provide it as an ongoing service to customers. Paylocity's gross profit margin, an important metric measuring how much money there is left after paying for servers, licences, technical support and other necessary running expenses was at 64.7% in Q4.
That means that for every $1 in revenue the company had $0.64 left to spend on developing new products, marketing & sales and the general administrative overhead. This would be considered a low gross margin for a SaaS company and it has dropped significantly from the previous quarter, which is probably the opposite of what shareholders would like it to do.
Key Takeaways from Paylocity's Q4 Results
Sporting a market capitalisation of $11.6 billion, more than $206.7 million in cash and with positive free cash flow over the last twelve months, we're confident that Paylocity has the resources it needs to pursue a high growth business strategy.
We were impressed that Paylocity guided for revenue growth to accelerate next year. And we were also glad that the revenue guidance for the next quarter exceeded analysts' expectations. On the other hand, it was less good to see the deterioration in gross margin. Overall, we think this was a really good quarter, that should leave shareholders feeling very positive. The company is up 2.62% on the results and currently trades at $225.16 per share.
Should you invest in Paylocity right now? It is important that you take into account its valuation and business qualities, as well as what happened in the latest quarter. We look at that in our full report which you can read here, it's free.
One way how to find opportunities in the market is to watch for generational shifts in the economy. Almost every company is slowly finding itself becoming a technology company and facing cybersecurity risks and as a result, the demand for cloud-native cybersecurity is skyrocketing. This company is leading a massive technological shift in the industry and with revenue growth of 70% year on year and best-in-class SaaS metrics it should definitely be on your radar.
The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.