Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Shares Gap Up - Still a Buy?

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) shares gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $8.66, but opened at $9.00. Priority Technology shares last traded at $8.94, with a volume of 391,855 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Priority Technology Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.11. The company has a market capitalization of $687.08 million, a PE ratio of -21.19 and a beta of 1.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Sean Kiewiet sold 22,178 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.01, for a total transaction of $222,001.78. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,009,675 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,106,846.75. The trade was a 2.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 231,215 shares of company stock valued at $2,360,486. Insiders own 76.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Priority Technology

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rebalance LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Priority Technology during the third quarter worth $4,822,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Priority Technology during the 2nd quarter worth about $202,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Priority Technology by 273.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 33,900 shares of the company's stock valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 24,811 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 396,335 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,707,000 after buying an additional 21,598 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Priority Technology by 255.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,064 shares of the company's stock worth $178,000 after buying an additional 18,741 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.