William Scully Purchases 100,000 Shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully bought 100,000 shares of Prothena stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $9.81 per share, with a total value of $981,000.00. Following the purchase, the insider owned 836,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,201,160. This represents a 13.59% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Large shareholders that own 10% or more of a company’s stock are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Prothena Price Performance

NASDAQ PRTA opened at $10.03 on Thursday. Prothena Corporation plc has a 1 year low of $4.32 and a 1 year high of $11.80. The firm has a market cap of $525.07 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.56, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of -0.23. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $10.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.75.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by $0.91. The company had revenue of $51.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.81 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 260.92% and a negative return on equity of 43.44%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on PRTA shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 price target on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Citizens Jmp increased their price target on shares of Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Prothena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rubric Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 36.0% in the first quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,600,000 after buying an additional 1,322,669 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 151.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,267,802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,658,000 after buying an additional 1,366,764 shares in the last quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 8.5% in the first quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC now owns 1,581,443 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $15,372,000 after buying an additional 123,679 shares in the last quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP increased its position in shares of Prothena by 3.9% in the third quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP now owns 1,324,028 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $12,923,000 after purchasing an additional 49,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Prothena by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,063,069 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $10,154,000 after purchasing an additional 43,586 shares during the last quarter. 97.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Prothena

Prothena Corporation plc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapies for neurodegenerative and rare diseases driven by misfolded proteins. The company’s research focuses on immunotherapies and small molecules designed to target and clear disease-causing protein aggregates. Prothena leverages proprietary protein engineering and antibody discovery platforms to advance candidates through preclinical and clinical stages.

The company’s most advanced program is an antibody targeting aggregated alpha-synuclein for the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease, currently in mid-stage clinical trials.