Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Trading Up 7.3% - Here's Why

Shares of Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) shot up 7.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $8.37 and last traded at $8.35. 126,612 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 371,880 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.78.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PRTH. TD Cowen raised shares of Priority Technology to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Priority Technology from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th.

Priority Technology Stock Up 12.1%

The company's fifty day simple moving average is $7.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.62. The company has a market capitalization of $695.42 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -79.27 and a beta of 1.44.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.12. Priority Technology had a net margin of 3.01% and a negative return on equity of 38.73%. The company had revenue of $224.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $228.81 million. Equities research analysts expect that Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Bradley J. Miller sold 100,000 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.55, for a total transaction of $855,000.00. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 243,620 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,082,951. The trade was a 29.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Marietta Davis sold 9,433 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.22, for a total transaction of $68,106.26. Following the sale, the director owned 75,136 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $542,481.92. This trade represents a 11.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 66.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Priority Technology

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Steamboat Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 200.6% in the first quarter. Steamboat Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,400,000 shares of the company's stock worth $16,356,000 after purchasing an additional 1,601,491 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Priority Technology in the fourth quarter worth about $4,883,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Priority Technology in the first quarter worth about $2,809,000. Divisadero Street Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Priority Technology in the fourth quarter worth about $4,524,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 825.3% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 357,473 shares of the company's stock worth $2,431,000 after purchasing an additional 318,839 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.52% of the company's stock.

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.