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

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 698,800 shares, a drop of 13.7% from the December 15th total of 809,700 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 246,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days. Approximately 5.0% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Priority Technology Trading Up 7.4 %

NASDAQ PRTH opened at $8.66 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.07. Priority Technology has a 52 week low of $2.82 and a 52 week high of $12.44. The stock has a market cap of $668.55 million, a P/E ratio of -20.62 and a beta of 1.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Priority Technology news, insider Sean Kiewiet sold 170,596 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.60, for a total transaction of $1,808,317.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 711,853 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,545,641.80. The trade was a 19.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 231,215 shares of company stock valued at $2,360,486. Insiders own 76.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Priority Technology during the third quarter worth $91,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of Priority Technology by 61.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,000 after purchasing an additional 6,096 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Priority Technology in the third quarter worth $112,000. Jane Street Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 6.1% in the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 22,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,000 after buying an additional 1,293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 99.1% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 24,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,000 after buying an additional 12,336 shares during the last quarter. 11.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PRTH has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Priority Technology from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $10.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Thursday. Lake Street Capital lifted their price target on shares of Priority Technology from $8.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, B. Riley lifted their price target on shares of Priority Technology from $13.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th.

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.