It's been a pretty great week for Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) shareholders, with its shares surging 10% to US$192 in the week since its latest quarterly results. Revenues were US$363m, approximately in line with expectations, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) performed substantially better. EPS of US$0.88 were also better than expected, beating analyst predictions by 11%. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. So we gathered the latest post-earnings forecasts to see what estimates suggest is in store for next year.

View our latest analysis for Paylocity Holding

After the latest results, the 19 analysts covering Paylocity Holding are now predicting revenues of US$1.54b in 2025. If met, this would reflect an okay 6.5% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Statutory per-share earnings are expected to be US$3.94, roughly flat on the last 12 months. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$1.52b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$4.07 in 2025. The analysts seem to have become a little more negative on the business after the latest results, given the small dip in their earnings per share numbers for next year.

Althoughthe analysts have revised their earnings forecasts for next year, they've also lifted the consensus price target 7.3% to US$201, suggesting the revised estimates are not indicative of a weaker long-term future for the business. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. There are some variant perceptions on Paylocity Holding, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$250 and the most bearish at US$175 per share. There are definitely some different views on the stock, but the range of estimates is not wide enough as to imply that the situation is unforecastable, in our view.

One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. We would highlight that Paylocity Holding's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 8.7% annualised growth rate until the end of 2025 being well below the historical 23% p.a. growth over the last five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 5.7% annually. So it's pretty clear that, while Paylocity Holding's revenue growth is expected to slow, it's still expected to grow faster than the industry itself.