Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Trading Down 4.6% Following Insider Selling

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH)’s share price dropped 4.6% during trading on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $9.04 and last traded at $9.04. Approximately 180,158 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 887,866 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.47.

Specifically, CEO Thomas Charles Priore sold 105,833 shares of the firm’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 $787,397.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 33,919,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $252,360,975.84. This trade represents a 0.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Thomas Charles Priore sold 294,167 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $2,188,602.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,025,319 shares in the company, valued at approximately $253,148,373.36. This trade represents a 0.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In other news, COO Ranjana Ram sold 6,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 0.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Priority Technology Trading Down 4.6 %

The company’s 50-day moving average is $9.76 and its 200 day moving average is $7.21. The firm has a market cap of $697.12 million, a PE ratio of -21.55 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.12. Priority Technology had a negative return on equity of 15.86% and a net margin of 1.96%. The company had revenue of $227.05 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $221.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.16) earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. will post -0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Priority Technology

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Priority Technology in the third quarter worth approximately $91,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Priority Technology during the 4th quarter valued at $100,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 61.7% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 6,096 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Priority Technology in the third quarter worth $112,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC increased its position in Priority Technology by 6.1% during the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 22,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,000 after buying an additional 1,293 shares during 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.