Paymentus (NYSE:PAY) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Seaport Research Partners

Paymentus (NYSE:PAY) was upgraded by stock analysts at Seaport Research Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Zacks reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wolfe Research downgraded Paymentus from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Paymentus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 13th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Paymentus from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Paymentus from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Freedom Broker upgraded shares of Paymentus to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.67.

Paymentus Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:PAY opened at $36.16 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.55 billion, a PE ratio of 54.79 and a beta of 1.31. Paymentus has a fifty-two week low of $20.11 and a fifty-two week high of $45.31. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.62.

Paymentus (NYSE:PAY) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $360.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $345.44 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. Paymentus’s revenue was up 28.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Paymentus will post 0.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gary Trainor sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.79, for a total transaction of $3,263,200.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 509,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,798,331.52. This trade represents a 13.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Sanjay Kalra sold 25,000 shares of Paymentus stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.21, for a total transaction of $1,030,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 508,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,955,532.26. This represents a 4.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 147,909 shares of company stock valued at $5,735,337 in the last quarter. 55.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Paymentus

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

About Paymentus

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.