Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) Upgraded by Zacks Research to Hold Rating

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) was upgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

PRTH has been the topic of a number of other reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Priority Technology in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of Priority Technology from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $6.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Industrial Alliance Securities set a $11.00 price objective on shares of Priority Technology in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Alliance Global Partners restated a “buy” rating on shares of Priority Technology in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Priority Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.50.

Priority Technology Price Performance

Priority Technology stock opened at $5.82 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $476.48 million, a PE ratio of 10.98 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $5.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $6.86. Priority Technology has a one year low of $4.44 and a one year high of $12.47.

Priority Technology (NASDAQ:PRTH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $241.44 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $251.74 million. Priority Technology had a net margin of 5.78% and a negative return on equity of 60.29%. Sell-side analysts expect that Priority Technology will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Priority Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PRTH. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Priority Technology by 825.3% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 357,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,431,000 after purchasing an additional 318,839 shares during the last quarter. Investors Asset Management of Georgia Inc. GA ADV boosted its position in Priority Technology by 44.6% during the 2nd quarter. Investors Asset Management of Georgia Inc. GA ADV now owns 136,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,066,000 after buying an additional 42,260 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Priority Technology by 40.3% during the 2nd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 184,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,439,000 after acquiring an additional 53,163 shares during the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Priority Technology during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $688,000. Finally, Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its position in Priority Technology by 167.9% in the 2nd quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 57,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $448,000 after acquiring an additional 36,100 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 11.52% of the company’s stock.

About Priority Technology

Priority Technology Acquisition Corp is a special purpose acquisition company formed to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, recapitalization or similar business combination with one or more businesses in the technology sector. As a blank-check company, it does not conduct any operations of its own and holds the proceeds from its initial public offering in a trust account pending the identification and completion of a business combination.

The company’s management team is focused on evaluating target businesses that offer scalable technology products or services, including software, digital platforms and related infrastructure.