Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) Short Interest Down 28.4% in January

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 411,300 shares, a decrease of 28.4% from the January 15th total of 574,200 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 512,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.8 days. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Priority Technology Trading Up 2.7 %

NASDAQ PRTH traded up $0.30 on Friday, hitting $11.43. 350,440 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 820,314. Priority Technology has a 52 week low of $2.82 and a 52 week high of $12.44. The stock has a market cap of $882.37 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.21 and a beta of 1.17. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $10.11 and a 200-day moving average of $7.76.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John Vito Priore sold 3,454,575 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total value of $25,702,038.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,314,430 shares in the company, valued at $39,539,359.20. This trade represents a 39.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Sean Kiewiet sold 6,467 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $65,316.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 909,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,189,929.40. This represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,343,646 shares of company stock valued at $40,419,456. 76.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Priority Technology

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rebalance LLC bought a new stake in shares of Priority Technology in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,822,000. Invesco Ltd. purchased a new stake in Priority Technology in the fourth quarter worth about $4,883,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of Priority Technology during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,471,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Priority Technology by 405.6% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 242,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,846,000 after purchasing an additional 194,300 shares during the period. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC bought a new position in Priority Technology in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,977,000. 11.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on PRTH shares. Lake Street Capital boosted their price target on Priority Technology from $8.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Priority Technology from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $10.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, B. Riley upped their price target on Priority Technology from $13.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th.

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.