Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $62.86.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on PRTA shares. StockNews.com raised Prothena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on Prothena from $66.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Prothena from $28.00 to $24.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PRTA. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Prothena by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 313,230 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $11,383,000 after acquiring an additional 4,693 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Prothena by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 30,973 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,126,000 after acquiring an additional 5,391 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP lifted its stake in Prothena by 19.1% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 67,683 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,460,000 after acquiring an additional 10,840 shares in the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Prothena by 32.2% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 207,419 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,538,000 after acquiring an additional 50,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Prothena in the 4th quarter worth about $10,103,000. 97.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Prothena Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of PRTA stock opened at $21.61 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.17. Prothena has a fifty-two week low of $18.69 and a fifty-two week high of $55.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.16 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.65 and a beta of 0.18.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biotechnology company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.01) by $2.23. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 9.00% and a negative net margin of 23.44%. The business had revenue of $132.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($1.03) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3184.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Prothena will post -2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

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.