Brokerages Set Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Target Price at $55.00

Shares of Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $55.00.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PRTA. Chardan Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Prothena from $24.00 to $20.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Prothena from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, February 21st.

Prothena Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of PRTA stock opened at $12.88 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $693.29 million, a PE ratio of -5.60 and a beta of -0.02. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.96. Prothena has a twelve month low of $11.70 and a twelve month high of $26.45.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.08) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.02) by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $2.12 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.53 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 90.50% and a negative return on equity of 22.67%. Equities research analysts predict that Prothena will post -4.04 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Prothena by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC now owns 5,148 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Prothena by 196.5% during the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 7,330 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 4,858 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena during the fourth quarter worth $145,000. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena during the fourth quarter worth $149,000. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena during the fourth quarter worth $159,000. 97.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Prothena

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.