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

Key Points

• Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. experienced a substantial increase in short interest, rising by 40% in August, bringing the total short interest to 1,890,000 shares.
• Equities research analysts have upgraded Priority Technology's stock rating, with Zacks Research and Wall Street Zen both moving it to a "buy" rating, while the consensus price target is set at $13.00.
• The company reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.26, exceeding analysts' estimates, and had a revenue of $239.81 million for the quarter.

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totaling 1,890,000 shares, a growth of 40.0% from the July 31st total of 1,350,000 shares. Approximately 7.5% of the company's stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 570,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days. Based on an average daily volume of 570,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days. Approximately 7.5% of the company's stock are short sold.

Priority Technology Trading Down 1.2%

Priority Technology stock traded down $0.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $7.54. 347,093 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 402,941. Priority Technology has a 1-year low of $5.01 and a 1-year high of $12.47. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $7.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $7.66. The stock has a market cap of $602.58 million, a P/E ratio of 29.00 and a beta of 1.64.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.01. Priority Technology had a negative return on equity of 47.35% and a net margin of 4.03%.The company had revenue of $239.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $239.63 million. Priority Technology has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Priority Technology will post -0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Priority Technology

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Priority Technology during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in Priority Technology during the first quarter valued at about $37,000. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Priority Technology during the first quarter valued at about $46,000. CWM LLC raised its holdings in Priority Technology by 13,386.7% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 8,092 shares of the company's stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 8,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE bought a new position in Priority Technology during the first quarter valued at about $58,000. 11.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on PRTH shares. Zacks Research upgraded Priority Technology from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Priority Technology from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Priority Technology in a report on Friday, August 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have assigned a Buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Priority Technology currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $13.00.

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.