Who owns Paylocity? Ownership structure explained (2026)

Paylocity is one of the larger independent names in cloud payroll and human capital management, and its ownership tells a specific story: a founder who built a payroll bureau in suburban Chicago, took private equity money to scale it, floated it in 2014, and then handed operating control to a professional management team while keeping a large personal stake. That combination is unusual. Most software companies of this size are either founder-run or fully institutionally controlled. Paylocity is neither.

The company sells payroll, HR, benefits administration, time tracking, talent, and spend management software to small and mid-sized employers, the segment where it competes hardest with ADP, Paychex, Paycom, Workday, and a wave of newer entrants. Understanding who owns it explains a lot about how it is run: a single-class share structure that treats every owner equally, a founder who has pledged to give most of his wealth away, and a shareholder base dominated by the same index funds that own most of corporate America.

This article breaks down who owns Paylocity, how that ownership came together, and why the structure matters for the company, its investors, and its customers.

Paylocity was founded in 1997 by Steve Sarowitz, originally under the name Ameripay Payroll Ltd. The business was renamed Paylocity in 2005 as it shifted from a traditional payroll bureau to a cloud-based software provider. It is headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois, in a facility that once served as Zurich Insurance's North American headquarters.

The product is a unified cloud platform for payroll and human capital management. It covers payroll processing, HR administration, benefits, time and attendance, talent acquisition, employee experience tools, and, since 2024, corporate spend management. Its core market is employers with roughly 50 to 1,000 employees, a mid-market band it targets more tightly than the largest incumbents do.

In fiscal 2026, which ended June 30, 2026, Paylocity reported total revenue of $1.77 billion, up 11.0% year over year, with recurring and other revenue of $1.65 billion. GAAP net income rose 18.8% to $269.7 million, or $4.92 per diluted share. As of mid-September 2026, the company carried a market capitalization of roughly $7.8 billion, with the stock trading near $147 and about 53 million shares outstanding.

Paylocity is a publicly traded, independent company. It listed on the Nasdaq in March 2014 and has no parent or controlling corporation above it. Ownership is spread across public shareholders, and the largest blocks belong to a familiar set of asset managers plus the company's founder. No single holder controls the company outright, though the founder's stake gives one individual more influence than any institution.

Steve Sarowitz is the anchor of the register. He owned about 44% of Paylocity at the 2014 IPO, and that stake has come down steadily since, diluted by new share issuance and reduced by his own periodic selling. By 2026 he held roughly 16% of the outstanding shares, a position worth well over $1 billion, split between shares he holds directly and shares held indirectly through family trusts. He remains the largest individual shareholder by a wide margin.

Sarowitz's selling is worth reading carefully. He has filed regular disposal notices, including sales in August 2026, but these are consistent with a founder diversifying a highly concentrated fortune rather than exiting. He has publicly pledged to give away roughly $1 billion during his lifetime, channeled through his Julian Grace and Wayfarer foundations, so a steady wind-down of his position is part of a stated philanthropic plan. What is disclosed is his beneficial ownership through SEC filings. What is not disclosed in detail is the schedule or ceiling of future sales.

The table below shows the approximate largest holders. Institutional percentages move with each quarterly filing, so treat them as recent snapshots rather than fixed figures.

Vanguard Group ranks among the largest institutional holders, with a position in the high-single-digit percentage range. Its stake is held almost entirely through index funds such as its total stock market and mid-cap products, meaning Vanguard owns Paylocity because the stock sits in the indexes it tracks, not because of a specific view on the company.

BlackRock holds a comparable position, again driven mainly by index and iShares ETF products. In August 2026 it disclosed a Paylocity position valued at more than $400 million. Like Vanguard, its ownership is a function of Paylocity's index membership.

T. Rowe Price is the most notable active manager on the register, with a stake in the mid-single-digit to high-single-digit range spread across funds including its New Horizons and Mid-Cap Growth strategies. Unlike the index giants, T. Rowe's position reflects a deliberate growth-investing thesis on mid-cap software.

Adams Street Partners, the private equity firm that funded Paylocity before it went public, no longer appears among the major holders. It led a $10 million Series A in 2008 and a $27.3 million Series B in 2012, backing that let the company scale its cloud platform ahead of the IPO. Adams Street realized its return through and after the 2014 listing, and its role today is historical rather than current.

Paylocity has a single class of common stock, so voting power tracks economic ownership one for one. There is no dual-class structure and no founder super-voting shares. This is a meaningful contrast with peers such as Workday's dual-class control, where the founders retain outsized voting rights through a separate share class. At Paylocity, Sarowitz's influence comes purely from the size of his holding, not from any special voting rights, and every other shareholder votes on equal terms.

Steve Sarowitz remains the most influential owner, but he stepped back from operations years ago. He served as chairman from the company's founding until August 2024, when he transitioned to an ordinary board seat. He is a director and the largest individual shareholder, but he does not run the company.

Toby Williams is the chief executive. He joined Paylocity as chief financial officer in 2017, was promoted to president and co-CEO in 2022, and became sole CEO in August 2024. Before Paylocity he was chief product and strategy officer at Ellucian and earlier led corporate development and M&A at Paychex, giving him deep roots in the payroll and HCM industry he now competes in.

Steve Beauchamp is executive chairman. He joined in 2007 as president and chief operating officer, became CEO within about a year, and led the company through its IPO and its scaling into a billion-dollar revenue business. He handed the CEO title to Williams in 2024 and moved to the executive chairman role, and he remains a large insider shareholder in his own right.

The rest of the leadership team includes Ryan Glenn as chief financial officer, plus senior executives across product, sales, operations, and human resources. The board has ten members and is majority independent, with Ronald V. Waters III serving as lead independent director. Beauchamp, Williams, and Sarowitz are the three non-independent directors, reflecting their operating and founder roles.

Paylocity's biggest ongoing risk is competitive, not legal. It sits between the scale incumbents and the fast-growing challengers. On one side are ADP and Paychex, the payroll giants whose reach and installed base dwarf Paylocity's; the way ADP is owned and Paychex's founder-anchored ownership both make useful reference points for how a mature payroll business is structured. On the other side are Paycom, Workday moving down-market, and venture-backed challengers, including the privately held platforms behind Gusto's venture-backed ownership. Winning share against all of them at once is the central strategic challenge, and it is a fair question for anyone weighing the stock to run through a structured competitive analysis template.

Paylocity spent years growing revenue at rates well above 30%. That has cooled to around 11% in fiscal 2026. The deceleration is not a scandal, but it changes the investment case from hypergrowth to durable, profitable expansion, and it puts more weight on margins and cash generation. Investors trying to judge what that shift is worth can pressure-test the market's roughly $7.8 billion valuation with a business valuation calculator or a DCF model of future cash flows.

The 2021 Blue Marble and 2024 Airbase acquisitions pushed Paylocity into international payroll and corporate spend management, areas beyond its historical core. Both broaden the platform, but both also carry integration and execution risk, and spend management in particular puts Paylocity into competition with a different set of players. How well these bets pay off will shape the revenue story over the next few years.

Sarowitz's profile extends well beyond Paylocity. He has become a prominent philanthropist tied to the Bahá'í faith, pledging to give away roughly $1 billion, and he co-founded a media venture, Wayfarer Studios, outside the company. These activities are not Paylocity matters, but because he is the largest single shareholder, his personal priorities, including a stated plan to steadily give away his fortune, are relevant to how his stake may evolve over time.

Paylocity's ownership structure sits in a middle ground that shapes how the company behaves. A founder with a large, single-class stake but no operating role and no super-voting shares creates a specific kind of alignment. Sarowitz has every financial incentive to see the stock do well, but he cannot override other shareholders, and he has handed execution to a professional team. That tends to produce steadier, less idiosyncratic decision-making than a founder-CEO structure, while still keeping a large insider anchored to long-term value.

For institutional investors, the heavy index-fund presence means a large part of the register is effectively passive. Vanguard and BlackRock own Paylocity because it is in the indexes they track, and they will hold it regardless of quarterly results. The active voice on the register comes from managers like T. Rowe Price, who own the stock on a growth thesis and will react if that thesis breaks. The founder's ongoing selling adds a modest, predictable supply of shares to the market, which is worth watching but is well telegraphed.

For customers, the ownership picture is mostly reassuring. Paylocity is independent, profitable, and not controlled by a private equity owner looking for a near-term exit or by a strategic parent that might redirect the roadmap. That independence supports continued investment in the product rather than cost extraction. The main caveat is competitive: a mid-market software company facing giants above and challengers below has to keep spending to stay relevant, and its owners will expect that spending to convert into both growth and margin.

The through-line is balance. Paylocity is neither a founder's personal vehicle nor a faceless institutional holding. It is a public company with a large, aligned founder, a professional management team, and a shareholder base that rewards durable profitable growth over swing-for-the-fences bets.

Paylocity is a publicly traded company with no parent, so it is owned by its shareholders. The largest single owner is founder Steve Sarowitz, with roughly 16% of the stock. Large institutions including Vanguard, BlackRock, and T. Rowe Price each hold mid-single-digit to high-single-digit stakes, and company insiders collectively own a meaningful share.

Toby Williams is the chief executive officer. He joined as CFO in 2017, became president and co-CEO in 2022, and has been sole CEO since August 2024. Steve Beauchamp, the previous CEO, serves as executive chairman.

Yes. Paylocity trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker PCTY. It went public in March 2014, raising about $120 million.

Steve Sarowitz founded the company in 1997, originally as Ameripay Payroll Ltd. It was renamed Paylocity in 2005. Sarowitz remains a board director and the largest individual shareholder.

Founder Steve Sarowitz is the biggest individual shareholder at around 16%. The largest institutional holders are index and growth managers, chiefly Vanguard, BlackRock, and T. Rowe Price, each with mid-to-high single-digit percentages. Executive chairman Steve Beauchamp is also a large insider holder.

Paylocity's market capitalization was roughly $7.8 billion in mid-September 2026. That valuation reflects fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.77 billion and net income of $269.7 million.