Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Given Sector Perform Rating at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their sector perform rating on shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $28.00 price objective on the biotechnology company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. JMP Securities dropped their price target on Prothena from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a market outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an overweight rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, HC Wainwright lowered their price objective on shares of Prothena from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $66.00.

Prothena Stock Down 3.9 %

NASDAQ:PRTA opened at $19.96 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $21.22 and a 200 day moving average of $27.04. Prothena has a 52 week low of $18.69 and a 52 week high of $73.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.14 and a beta of 0.24.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.21) by ($0.13). Prothena had a negative net margin of 193.17% and a negative return on equity of 30.48%. The business had revenue of $0.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.75 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.89) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Prothena will post -4.69 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PRTA. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its holdings in Prothena by 26.0% in the first quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 14,039 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $348,000 after purchasing an additional 2,895 shares during the last quarter. Artal Group S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 99.7% in the 1st quarter. Artal Group S.A. now owns 1,001,360 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $24,804,000 after buying an additional 500,000 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Prothena by 5.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,125,283 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $27,873,000 after buying an additional 54,728 shares during the last quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc grew its holdings in Prothena by 7,751.9% during the first quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc now owns 10,129 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $251,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares during the period. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Prothena by 8.9% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 11,346 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $281,000 after acquiring an additional 932 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Prothena Company Profile

Prothena Corporation plc, a late-stage clinical biotechnology company, focuses on discovery and development of novel therapies to treat diseases caused by protein dysregulation in the United States. The company is involved in developing birtamimab, an investigational humanized antibody that is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of AL amyloidosis; Prasinezumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and other related synucleinopathies which is in Phase IIb clinical trial; NNC6019 that is in Phase lI clinical trial for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis; and BMS-986446 and PRX012, which is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.