Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) Short Interest Up 269.8% in March

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,490,000 shares, an increase of 269.8% from the March 15th total of 402,900 shares. Approximately 7.0% of the company's shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 686,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Priority Technology Stock Up 3.7 %

PRTH stock traded up $0.25 during trading on Friday, hitting $6.95. 343,012 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 275,343. The firm has a market capitalization of $552.66 million, a P/E ratio of -16.55 and a beta of 1.20. Priority Technology has a 1 year low of $3.06 and a 1 year high of $12.47. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $8.56.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on PRTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an "outperform" rating and set a $12.00 price objective (down 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.

Insider Activity at Priority Technology

In other Priority Technology news, CEO Thomas Charles Priore sold 105,833 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total value of $787,397.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 33,919,486 shares of the company's stock, valued at $252,360,975.84. The trade was a 0.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John Vito Priore sold 1,242,856 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,071,574 shares in the company, valued at $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 sold a total of 1,355,304 shares of company stock worth $10,083,462 in the last quarter. 76.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Priority Technology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 255.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,064 shares of the company's stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 18,741 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Priority Technology by 384.4% in the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 79,515 shares of the company's stock worth $934,000 after purchasing an additional 63,100 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of Priority Technology during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,471,000. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of Priority Technology by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 23,706 shares of the company's stock valued at $279,000 after buying an additional 1,964 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Priority Technology by 6.1% in the 3rd 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. Institutional investors own 11.52% of the company's stock.

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.