Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) saw a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 402,900 shares, a growth of 44.4% from the February 28th total of 279,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 671,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.6 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen raised Priority Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 price target (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Priority Technology in a research note on Friday, March 7th.

Priority Technology Stock Performance

PRTH stock traded down $0.68 on Friday, reaching $6.75. The company had a trading volume of 1,005,270 shares, compared to its average volume of 249,856. The company’s fifty day moving average is $9.35 and its 200 day moving average is $8.53. The company has a market cap of $536.75 million, a P/E ratio of -16.07 and a beta of 0.99. Priority Technology has a 1 year low of $2.82 and a 1 year high of $12.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Priority Technology

In other Priority Technology news, COO Ranjana Ram sold 6,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $49,215.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 686,389 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,106,734.16. The trade was a 0.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John Vito Priore sold 1,242,856 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $9,246,848.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 4,071,574 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,292,510.56. This trade represents a 23.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 5,122,431 shares of company stock valued at $38,110,887. 76.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Priority Technology

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 255.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 18,741 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in Priority Technology by 384.4% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 79,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $934,000 after acquiring an additional 63,100 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in Priority Technology by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 23,706 shares of the company’s stock worth $279,000 after acquiring an additional 1,964 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in Priority Technology by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 22,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 1,293 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Priority Technology by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 396,335 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,707,000 after acquiring an additional 21,598 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.52% of the company’s stock.

Priority Technology Company Profile

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.