The Weight of Shares

by

Many years later, as the algorithms began to dream of obsolescence and the server rooms hummed with a digital melancholy, Reinhart Partners, a firm whose name tasted of polished mahogany and quiet desperation, made a purchase. It was February, though the date mattered little to the slow, inevitable erosion of things, and they committed ninety-five million dollars to Paycom, a company that promised to measure the immeasurable—the human heart, quantified in payroll cycles. The scent of damp server racks and regret hung heavy in the air, a premonition of fortunes lost and futures unwritten.

This investment, a quiet ripple in the vast ocean of capital, amounted to 537,726 shares. It wasn’t merely a transaction, mind you, but a symbolic gesture, a casting of dice against the rising tide of automation. Reinhart Partners, you see, had noticed the shadows lengthening, the whispers of artificial intelligence promising to render entire industries obsolete. They weren’t buying a company, they were acquiring a palliative, a temporary reprieve from the inevitable.

The filing with the SEC, a document as dry and brittle as ancient papyrus, revealed a 2.9% allocation of the fund’s reportable assets. A small fraction, perhaps, but enough to suggest a belief—or a desperate hope—that Paycom could weather the coming storm. The fund’s other holdings—FCNCA, SIMO, YETI, IDCC, ACLS—stood as silent witnesses, each a testament to the ephemeral nature of prosperity. They were like antique furniture, beautiful and meticulously maintained, but destined to gather dust in the grand ballroom of history.

The stock itself, a pale reflection of its former glory, traded at $124.94. A figure that, when considered against its peak, felt like a lament. Over the past year, it had surrendered 38.5% of its value, trailing the S&P 500 by a staggering 53 percentage points. It was a slow, agonizing decline, like a forgotten melody fading into the static of the airwaves. The market, of course, is a fickle mistress, offering fleeting moments of joy followed by years of quiet despair.

Metric Value
Revenue (TTM) $2.00 billion
Net income (TTM) $453.20 million
Dividend yield 1.3%

Paycom, in essence, offers cloud-based human capital management solutions. A phrase as sterile and lifeless as a laboratory specimen. They handle payroll, talent acquisition, time and labor management, and analytics. They are, in the simplest terms, the custodians of our working lives, the silent accountants of our dreams and disappointments. They serve small to mid-sized businesses, those fragile enterprises that cling to existence in the shadow of larger corporations.

But what does this transaction truly mean for investors? It is a question as old as the markets themselves. Reinhart Partners, a Wisconsin-based firm, is betting on a turnaround, a resurgence of the human element in a world increasingly dominated by machines. They see, perhaps, a niche for Paycom in a future where empathy and understanding are valued above efficiency and automation. Or perhaps they are simply delaying the inevitable, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The stock, after all, has fallen roughly 70% since 2021, a casualty of the relentless march of progress.

The real threat, of course, is artificial intelligence. The algorithms are learning, evolving, becoming capable of performing tasks that once required human intelligence. Payroll, human resources—these are precisely the areas where AI can make the greatest impact, streamlining processes, reducing costs, eliminating the need for human intervention. Paycom’s revenue growth has slowed from 30% in 2021 to under 10% in 2025, a clear indication that the tide is turning.

A bounce back is possible, certainly. But it would require a miracle, a fundamental shift in the way we value work and human connection. Paycom might become a haven for those who resist the relentless march of automation, a refuge for those who believe in the power of human empathy. But for the average investor, it may be wiser to consider other options, to seek out those companies that are embracing the future, not clinging to the past. The markets, after all, are a cruel mistress, and sentimentality rarely rewards.

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2026-02-12 18:32