Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) Short Interest Update

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) saw a significant decline in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 698,800 shares, a decline of 13.7% from the December 31st total of 809,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 246,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 5.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Priority Technology Stock Performance

NASDAQ PRTH opened at $9.59 on Thursday. Priority Technology has a fifty-two week low of $2.82 and a fifty-two week high of $12.44. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $9.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.34.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.12. Priority Technology had a negative return on equity of 15.86% and a net margin of 1.96%. The business had revenue of $227.05 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $221.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.16) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Priority Technology will post -0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Thomas Charles Priore sold 105,833 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $787,397.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 33,919,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $252,360,975.84. This trade represents a 0.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Sean Kiewiet sold 170,596 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $7,545,641.80. The trade was a 19.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,353,646 shares of company stock worth $40,471,373. 76.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 22,347 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Priority Technology by 61.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,000 after buying an additional 6,096 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Priority Technology by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 56,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $386,000 after buying an additional 7,719 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Priority Technology in the 4th quarter worth approximately $100,000. Finally, Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Priority Technology by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 66,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $455,000 after acquiring an additional 9,675 shares during the last quarter. 11.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.