Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Here’s Why

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) saw strong trading volume on Friday . 626,519 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 153% from the previous session’s volume of 248,032 shares.The stock last traded at $6.80 and had previously closed at $7.43.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Priority Technology Price Performance

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.50. The firm has a market cap of $536.75 million, a PE ratio of -16.07 and a beta of 0.99.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Priority Technology news, COO Ranjana Ram sold 6,615 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $49,215.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 686,389 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,106,734.16. The trade was a 0.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John Vito Priore sold 3,454,575 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $39,539,359.20. This represents a 39.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,122,431 shares of company stock valued at $38,110,887 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 76.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Priority Technology

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of PRTH. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Priority Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at about $112,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position 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 valued at $386,000 after acquiring an additional 7,719 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in Priority Technology by 61.7% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,000 after acquiring an additional 6,096 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Priority Technology by 255.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,000 after purchasing an additional 18,741 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.