Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on the stock from $9.00 to $10.00. The stock had previously closed at $8.35, but opened at $8.57. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a market perform rating on the stock. Priority Technology shares last traded at $8.87, with a volume of 38,860 shares changing hands.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on PRTH. B. Riley lifted their price objective on Priority Technology from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Lake Street Capital lifted their price target on shares of Priority Technology from $8.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday.

Insider Transactions at Priority Technology

In related news, CAO Rajiv Kumar sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.13, for a total transaction of $61,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 11,587 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $71,028.31. This represents a 46.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sean Kiewiet sold 11,664 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.61, for a total transaction of $77,099.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,073,494 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,095,795.34. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 48,302 shares of company stock worth $286,501 over the last quarter. 76.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Priority Technology

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Priority Technology during the third quarter worth approximately $91,000. Williams & Novak LLC purchased a new position in Priority Technology in the second quarter valued at about $77,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 61.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,983 shares of the company's stock worth $109,000 after purchasing an additional 6,096 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Priority Technology in the third quarter worth about $112,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 6.1% in the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 22,347 shares of the company's stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 1,293 shares in the last quarter. 11.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Priority Technology Trading Down 4.0 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $6.63 and a 200 day moving average of $5.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $618.87 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.10 and a beta of 1.01.

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.