Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Trading 6.9% Higher – Here’s Why

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) shares rose 6.9% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $9.59 and last traded at $9.58. Approximately 506,055 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 45% from the average daily volume of 919,228 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.96.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PRTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Priority Technology from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $10.00 to $14.00 in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Lake Street Capital boosted their target price on Priority Technology from $8.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, B. Riley increased their target price on Priority Technology from $13.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th.

Priority Technology Trading Up 0.9 %

The firm has a market cap of $703.29 million, a PE ratio of -21.69 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $9.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.22.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.12. The company had revenue of $227.05 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $221.15 million. Priority Technology had a negative return on equity of 15.86% and a net margin of 1.96%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.16) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Priority Technology news, Director John Vito Priore sold 3,454,575 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $25,702,038.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,314,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,539,359.20. This represents a 39.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Sean Kiewiet sold 170,596 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.60, for a total value of $1,808,317.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 711,853 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,545,641.80. This represents a 19.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,353,646 shares of company stock worth $40,471,373. 76.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Priority Technology

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Priority Technology during the second quarter worth about $202,000. Rebalance LLC acquired a new position in Priority Technology in the 3rd quarter worth $4,822,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Priority Technology during the third quarter valued at about $112,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Priority Technology by 15.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 56,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 7,719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. boosted its holdings in Priority Technology by 17.0% in the third quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 66,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $455,000 after purchasing an additional 9,675 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.52% of the company’s stock.

About Priority Technology

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB) Payments, Business-To-Business (B2B) Payments, and Enterprise Payments. It offers SMB payments processing solutions for B2C transactions through independent sales organizations, financial institutions, independent software vendors, and other referral partners through its MX product suite, which includes MX Connect and MX Merchant products, such as MX Insights, MX Storefront, MX Retail, MX Invoice, MX B2B and ACH.com, and others, which provides flexible and customizable set of business applications that helps to manage critical business work functions and revenue performance to resellers and merchant clients using core payment processing.