Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Still a Buy?

Shares of Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) saw strong trading volume on Friday . 626,519 shares changed hands during mid-day 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

PRTH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Priority Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 target price (down from $14.00) on shares of Priority Technology in a research report on Friday, March 7th.

Priority Technology Stock Performance

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Ranjana Ram sold 18,385 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $136,784.40. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 693,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,155,949.76. This trade represents a 2.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John Vito Priore sold 1,242,856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 4,071,574 shares of the company’s stock, 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 5,122,431 shares of company stock valued at $38,110,887 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 76.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Priority Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new position in Priority Technology in the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Priority Technology in the fourth quarter worth $60,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Priority Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at $91,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Priority Technology during the 4th quarter valued at $100,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in Priority Technology by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 8,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 3,006 shares during 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.