Paymentus Holdings Inc. (NYSE: PAY) Not A Good Play Anymore?

Franklin Advisers, Inc. has recently announced that it has increased stake in Paymentus Holdings Inc. (NYSE:PAY) by 8.22%. After grabbing 3.32 million shares, the institutional investor is now in possession of 0.25 million shares of the Technology Company. The new investment brought the stake of investor firm to 16.89% having worth around $26.59 million. Moreover, Capital Research & Management Co increased its share by 0.3 million to have a control over 3.16 million shares. And The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings to 0.11 million shares by acquiring 1.45 million shares or 7.39% of the stake.

Paymentus Holdings Inc. (PAY) concluded trading on 01/19/23 at a closing price of $8.33, with 0.16 million shares of worth about $1.3 million changed hands on the day. Half year performance of the stock remained negative as price took a plunge of -40.92% during that period and on Thursday the price saw a loss of about -1.30%. Currently the company’s common shares owned by public are about 122.74M shares, out of which, 19.06M shares are available for trading.

A deeper look into what the analysts at Wall Street are thinking about the price target of this stock provides us with the following: 10 analysts are covering the PAY stock and their offered price forecasts bring an average price target of $10.70. Over the next 12 months, analysts forecasted that the stock’s price could jump as high as $15.00 and could fall to a lowest price of $7.50. The stock’s current price level is 27.25% above of average price target set by the analysts, while a rise to estimated low would result in loss of -11.07% for the stock. However, touching the estimated high of $15.00 would mean a gain of 44.47% for the stock.

According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), insiders took part in trade of the company’s stock for 12 times over the past 12 months. They bought 716,358 shares in 9 of the transactions. In 3 selling transactions, insiders dumped 381 shares.

American Funds Small Cap World Fu, Franklin Small Cap Growth Fund, and Franklin Growth Fund are the top 3 mutual funds which are holding stakes in Paymentus Holdings Inc. American Funds Small Cap World Fu is currently holding 2.85 million shares of worth totaling $22.87 million. The company recently came selling -0.91 million shares which brought its stake up to 14.53% of the company’s outstanding shares. Franklin Growth Fund, after buying 0.92 million shares, have now control over 4.68% of the stake in the company. It holds 0.0 shares of worth $7.37 million.

Paymentus Holdings Inc. (NYSE: PAY) started trading at $8.38, below -$0.06 from concluding price of the previous day. However, the stock later moved at a day high price of 8.69, or with a loss of -1.30%. Stock saw a price change of 5.44% in past 5 days and over the past one month there was a price change of 3.87%. Year-to-date (YTD), PAY shares are showing a performance of 4.00% which decreased to -67.99% when we look at its performance for past 12 months. Over the period of past 52 weeks, stock dropped to lowest price of $6.75 but also hit the highest price of $31.29 during that period. The average intraday trading volume for Paymentus Holdings Inc. shares is 217.18K. The stock is currently trading 6.28% above its 20-day simple moving average (SMA20), while that difference is down -7.67% for SMA50 and it goes to -32.74% lower than SMA200.

Franklin Advisers, Inc. acquired 3.32 million shares of Paymentus Holdings Inc. having value of about $26.59 million. Data submitted at the U.S SEC by Franklin Advisers, Inc. revealed that the firm now holds 0.25 million shares in the company valued at close to $2099651.47, or have control over 8.22% stake in the company. Paymentus Holdings Inc. (NYSE: PAY) currently have 122.74M outstanding shares and institutions hold larger chunk of about 88.10% of that. Holding of mutual funds in the company is about 48.27% while other institutional holders and individual stake holders have control over 7.57% and 30.12% of the stake respectively.

The stock has a current market capitalization of $1.02B. PE ratio of stock for trailing 12 months is 333.20, while it has posted earnings per share of $0.03 in the same period. Its PEG reads 10.04 and has Quick Ratio of 2.40 while making debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Volatility of a stock is a metric used to know how much the price of that stock is under influence and for PAY, volatility over the week remained 6.20% while standing at 6.55% over the month.

Analysts are in expectations that Paymentus Holdings Inc. (PAY) stock would likely to be making an EPS of $0 in the current quarter, while forecast for next quarter EPS is $0.01 and it is $0.05 for next year. For the current quarter EPS, analysts have given the company a lowest target -$0.02 which is $0.04 at the higher side of the target for the same. When we compare those targets with actual EPS, we find that company posted an EPS of $0.01 in the same quarter a year ago. Stock’s fiscal year EPS is expected to drop by -19.40% while it is estimated to increase by 62.22% in next year.

Digging deeper we find that several firms have released their research notes about the support levels of the stock. Most recent of them is a note released by Wells Fargo on January 09, 2023 offering an Underweight rating for the stock and assigned a target price range of between $10 and $8.50 to it. Coverage by Goldman stated Paymentus Holdings Inc. (PAY) stock as a Sell in their note to investors on January 09, 2023, suggesting a price target of $7.50 for the stock. Stock get an Equal weight rating from Wells Fargo on September 08, 2022.