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

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 402,900 shares, an increase of 44.4% from the February 28th total of 279,000 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 671,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.6 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Ranjana Ram sold 6,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total value of $49,215.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 686,389 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,106,734.16. This trade represents a 0.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John Vito Priore sold 1,242,856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $9,246,848.64. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,071,574 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,292,510.56. This represents a 23.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,122,431 shares of company stock valued at $38,110,887 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 76.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Priority Technology

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Steamboat Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Priority Technology during the fourth quarter worth about $9,382,000. Invesco Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Priority Technology in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,883,000. Divisadero Street Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Priority Technology during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,524,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Priority Technology during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,471,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 405.6% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 242,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,846,000 after buying an additional 194,300 shares during the last quarter. 11.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Priority Technology Stock Down 9.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ PRTH traded down $0.68 during trading on Friday, reaching $6.75. 1,005,270 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 249,856. The company has a market capitalization of $536.75 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.07 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $9.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.53. Priority Technology has a twelve month low of $2.82 and a twelve month high of $12.47.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on PRTH shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 target price (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Priority Technology in a report on Friday, March 7th. TD Cowen upgraded Priority Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th.

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.