Barclays PLC Increases Stock Holdings in Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH)

Barclays PLC lifted its position in Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) by 255.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,064 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 18,741 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Priority Technology were worth $178,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PRTH. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Priority Technology in the second quarter valued at approximately $202,000. Rebalance LLC purchased a new stake in Priority Technology in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,822,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Priority Technology in the third quarter valued at approximately $112,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. grew its position in Priority Technology by 17.0% during the third quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 66,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $455,000 after acquiring an additional 9,675 shares during the last quarter. 11.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Priority Technology Stock Performance

Shares of Priority Technology stock opened at $9.47 on Thursday. Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $2.82 and a 52-week high of $12.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $731.07 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.55 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $9.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.19.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.12. Priority Technology had a net margin of 1.96% and a negative return on equity of 15.86%. The firm had revenue of $227.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $221.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.16) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Transactions at Priority Technology

In related news, Director John Vito Priore sold 1,242,856 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total value of $9,246,848.64. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,071,574 shares in the company, valued at $30,292,510.56. The trade was a 23.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Sean Kiewiet sold 5,700 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.11, for a total transaction of $29,127.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,055,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,391,857.38. This trade represents a 0.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 5,353,646 shares of company stock worth $40,471,373. Insiders own 76.30% 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.