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

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, a growth of 18.2% from the April 30th total of 1,590,000 shares. Approximately 7.5% of the company's stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 522,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Priority Technology Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PRTH traded down $0.25 on Wednesday, hitting $8.42. 299,327 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 322,338. Priority Technology has a 52 week low of $3.92 and a 52 week high of $12.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $671.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.05 and a beta of 1.51. The company's 50-day moving average price is $7.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.79.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $224.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $228.81 million. Priority Technology had a negative return on equity of 15.86% and a net margin of 1.96%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Priority Technology will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PRTH shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Priority Technology from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Priority Technology to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th.

Insider Activity

In other Priority Technology news, Director Marietta Davis sold 9,433 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.22, for a total transaction of $68,106.26. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 75,136 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $542,481.92. This represents a 11.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 66.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Priority Technology

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Corebridge Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Priority Technology by 19.0% during the 1st quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 10,876 shares of the company's stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in shares of Priority Technology by 9.0% during 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 in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Priority Technology by 25.5% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 13,030 shares of the company's stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 2,648 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in Priority Technology by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 8,593 shares of the company's stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 3,006 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in Priority Technology by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 29,127 shares of the company's stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 3,063 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.

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