Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Priority Technology was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "hold" to a "buy" rating, reflecting increased confidence in the company's performance.
• Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target for Priority Technology from $12.00 to $10.00 while maintaining an "outperform" rating, indicating a cautious outlook.
• The company's stock recently closed at $7.65, showing a 2.7% increase, with a current market capitalization of approximately $610 million.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Priority Technology from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $13.00.

Priority Technology Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PRTH traded up $0.51 on Friday, hitting $7.96. 389,219 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 586,064. The stock has a market capitalization of $636.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.65 and a beta of 1.51. Priority Technology has a 52 week low of $4.62 and a 52 week high of $12.47. The company's 50-day moving average price is $7.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.06.

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

Insider Transactions at Priority Technology

In other news, General Counsel Bradley J. Miller sold 100,000 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 29.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Marietta Davis sold 9,433 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.22, for a total value of $68,106.26. Following the transaction, the director owned 75,136 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. Company insiders own 66.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 447.2% during the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 155,005 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,206,000 after purchasing an additional 126,680 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in Priority Technology by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 71,088 shares of the company's stock worth $553,000 after acquiring an additional 10,015 shares during the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC bought a new position in Priority Technology in the 2nd quarter worth about $688,000. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in Priority Technology by 34.3% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 35,087 shares of the company's stock worth $273,000 after acquiring an additional 8,956 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Priority Technology by 965.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 26,505 shares of the company's stock worth $206,000 after acquiring an additional 24,018 shares during 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.