Short Interest in Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) Rises By 44.4%

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) saw a large 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. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 671,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.6 days. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of Priority Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 target price (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Priority Technology in a research report on Friday, March 7th.

Priority Technology Stock Up 8.1 %

PRTH traded up $0.55 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $7.37. 519,318 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 253,946. The firm has a market cap of $586.06 million, a P/E ratio of -17.55 and a beta of 0.99. Priority Technology has a one year low of $2.82 and a one year high of $12.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $9.31 and its 200 day moving average is $8.55.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Ranjana Ram sold 18,385 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $136,784.40. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 693,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,155,949.76. The trade was a 2.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John Vito Priore sold 3,454,575 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total value of $25,702,038.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,314,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,539,359.20. The trade was a 39.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,122,431 shares of company stock worth $38,110,887 in the last three months. Company insiders own 76.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PRTH. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its holdings in Priority Technology by 6.1% during the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 22,347 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 23,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $279,000 after buying an additional 1,964 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in Priority Technology by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 8,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 3,006 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Priority Technology by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 29,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,000 after acquiring an additional 3,063 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Priority Technology by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 39,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $466,000 after acquiring an additional 4,366 shares in the last quarter. 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.