Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) Short Interest Up 18.2% in May

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large 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. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 522,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days. Approximately 7.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Priority Technology Stock Up 0.5%

NASDAQ:PRTH traded up $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $8.41. 291,737 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 325,606. The stock has a market capitalization of $670.72 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.02 and a beta of 1.51. Priority Technology has a 52 week low of $3.92 and a 52 week high of $12.47. The firm's 50 day moving average is $7.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.79.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Marietta Davis sold 9,433 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $542,481.92. This represents a 11.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 66.20% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Priority Technology

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI bought a new position in Priority Technology during the 4th quarter valued at about $56,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in Priority Technology in the 4th quarter worth about $60,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in Priority Technology in the 1st quarter worth about $37,000. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Priority Technology in the 1st quarter worth about $46,000. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in Priority Technology by 13,386.7% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 8,092 shares of the company's stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 8,032 shares in the last quarter. 11.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on PRTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of 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 research report on Tuesday, March 18th.

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.