Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Trading 6.9% Higher – Still a Buy?

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH)’s stock price was up 6.9% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $9.59 and last traded at $9.58. Approximately 506,055 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 45% from the average daily volume of 919,228 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.96.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Priority Technology Price Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.22. The company has a market capitalization of $703.29 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.69 and a beta of 1.17.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.12. The company had revenue of $227.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $221.15 million. Priority Technology had a negative return on equity of 15.86% and a net margin of 1.96%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.16) EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. will post -0.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Priority Technology

In related news, Director John Vito Priore sold 1,242,856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $9,246,848.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,071,574 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,292,510.56. The trade was a 23.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Sean Kiewiet sold 170,596 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.60, for a total value of $1,808,317.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 711,853 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,545,641.80. This represents a 19.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 5,353,646 shares of company stock worth $40,471,373. Company insiders own 76.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Priority Technology by 255.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,000 after acquiring an additional 18,741 shares in the last quarter. Rebalance LLC acquired a new position in shares of Priority Technology in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,822,000. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in Priority Technology by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 22,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 5.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 396,335 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after buying an additional 21,598 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Priority Technology by 15.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 56,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $386,000 after buying an additional 7,719 shares during the last quarter. 11.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.