Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Buys 5,050 Shares of Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc boosted its stake in Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) by 30.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,643 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,050 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc’s holdings in Prothena were worth $447,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PRTA. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Prothena by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,237,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $153,986,000 after acquiring an additional 417,338 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Prothena by 21.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,594,102 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $94,270,000 after purchasing an additional 452,455 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 5.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,125,283 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $27,873,000 after purchasing an additional 54,728 shares during the last quarter. Artal Group S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 99.7% during the first quarter. Artal Group S.A. now owns 1,001,360 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,804,000 after purchasing an additional 500,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boxer Capital LLC raised its holdings in Prothena by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Boxer Capital LLC now owns 665,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $24,166,000 after buying an additional 40,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Prothena Stock Down 0.4 %

PRTA opened at $20.05 on Monday. Prothena Co. plc has a twelve month low of $18.69 and a twelve month high of $55.89. The company has a fifty day moving average of $21.52 and a 200-day moving average of $21.89. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of -6.17 and a beta of 0.18.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biotechnology company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.01) by $2.23. Prothena had a negative net margin of 23.44% and a negative return on equity of 9.00%. The company had revenue of $132.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.73 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($1.03) earnings per share. Prothena’s revenue for the quarter was up 3184.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Prothena Co. plc will post -2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Prothena from $28.00 to $24.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Monday, August 12th. StockNews.com raised Prothena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Prothena from $66.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Prothena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.86.

Prothena 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.